


Justin and Gabrielle in a Bottle

by Xie



Category: Queer as Folk (US), Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crack, Crossover, Ethan Gold Bashing, F/F, Fantasy, Humor, M/M, Mystery, Parody, Romance, Suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-07-19
Updated: 2006-11-05
Packaged: 2018-12-26 17:56:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 26,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12064104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xie/pseuds/Xie
Summary: Justin is trapped in a bottle. He's naked and has amnesia.





	1. Chapter 1

  
Author's notes:

There is no possible explanation or justification for the existence of this story. I'm just not well and that's all you can say. It's an AU, sort of semi-S4, except Justin is 17 and he and Brian have never met and Justin has amnesia and is naked and oh yeah, he's been in a bottle with Gabrielle (from Xena: Warrior Princess), and Xena is Brian's architect and Stockwell is conspiring with Callisto and there's a lot of intrigue and sex and Cynthia is really cool in this.

Did I mention Justin and Gabrielle are in a bottle? So it's sort of a QAF/Xena/I Dream of Jeannie/I Dream of Justin crossover.

Sort of.

No, really, you'll love it. 

And Justin might still be a virgin, and he might not, because, you know, he has amnesia. And he faints a lot. 

* * *

  
****  
Justin and Gabrielle in a Bottle  
by Xie  
  
Brian was in the conference room with Cynthia. Kinnetik had outgrown its current offices, and Brian had taken over the warehouse next door. The architect they were considering using for the project was due to arrive in a few minutes.   
  
Cynthia turned to set down the stack of storyboards she was holding.  
  
“What’s that?” Brian was pointing at a bright green bottle, glass the color of a green apple, sitting on the corner of the conference table. Cynthia looked at it, puzzled. “I have no idea. How pretty.” She stretched out her hand to pick it up, when a tall woman with long dark hair strode into the room.  
  
“Mr. Kinney, I’m Xena Stavros, and I’m happy to…”  
  
Cynthia had stopped reaching for the bottle when the architect walked into the room, and as she turned to greet her, one of the storyboards she’d been resting her other hand on shifted, its corner knocking the green bottle onto its side. It tipped over and the glass stopper slipped out and rolled to the edge of the table. Brian, Cynthia, and Xena all grabbed at it, and then froze.  
  
It looked like a stream of mist or smoke was emerging from the bottle, and hovering over the floor of the conference room. Light was streaming in the high windows and illuminating the mist, which separated into two distinct columns.  
  
Brian had his eyes on the column nearest him, which started to take on the shape of a young man. While he watched, it shimmered and coalesced and became almost solid. And then it turned into a blond boy with smooth skin and a flat little tummy and the most beautiful ass Brian had ever seen. Then he looked at the boy’s eyes, deep blue eyes like the ocean, and Brian felt something very strange in either his groin or his heart or possibly his stomach, probably related to the fact that a naked blond boy had just materialized in his conference room and not for any other reason. And then the boy closed his eyes and started to fall to the ground, and Brian reached forward and caught him before he fell.  
  
Brian turned to Xena, who was watching the second column with what looked like either shock or awe. A shape was forming there, too, the shape of a girl wearing a tiny green top and a little brown leather skirt, with short blonde hair and the most perfectly defined abdominal muscles Brian had ever seen on a woman. She materialized in a fighter’s stance, her eyes darting first to Brian, who held the unconscious blond boy in his arms, and then to Xena. Her eyes lit up and she dropped her pole or lance or whatever it was, and threw herself at Xena, wrapping her arms around her neck and kissing her face frantically.  
  
“Xena! I knew you’d get me out of there somehow!”  
  
Xena just stood there with the blonde’s arms around her neck and a stunned look on her face.  
  
Brian looked at Xena. “You KNOW THEM?”  
  
Xena looked at Brian over the blonde’s head. “I’ve never seen them or anything like them before in my life.” She pulled the young woman’s arms from around her neck and grabbed onto her wrists and pushed her out enough so she could see her face. “Who are you?”  
  
The blonde looked at her in bewilderment. “Xena, it’s me, Gabrielle, don’t you recognize me?”  
  
Xena shook her head in confusion. “And who’s he?” She jerked her chin towards the nude blond boy still unconscious in Brian’s arms.  
  
Gabrielle’s lips tightened. “That? Oh. That’s Justin.”

_Continued..._   



	2. Chapter 1

  
Author's notes: No naked!fainting!Justins were harmed in the writing of this fiction. Brian caught him when he fell.  


* * *

  
****  
Justin and Gabrielle in a Bottle, Chapter 2  
by Xie

The boy started to stir fretfully in Brian’s arms, and so he carried him over to the white sofa on the other side of the room. He gently laid the boy on the cushions. Even though he didn’t open his eyes, he pulled his arms up over them and drew his knees in tight. Brian thought he might be cold, or shy, so he shrugged out of his jacket and gently settled it over the slight figure on the sofa. He sat down next to him, and turned to Xena and the blonde, Gabrielle. Cynthia had sunk down on one of the chairs at the conference table and was watching the other four people. Her face was pale and her eyes were huge.

“Xena, you have to recognize me. I’m Gabrielle. Gabrielle! You saved me from being gang raped and sold into slavery, and then I followed you everywhere you went until you let me come with you on your adventures?”

“You STALKED ME?”

“I prefer to think of it as following my dream. Listening to my heart. Fulfilling my destiny.”

“Destiny?”

“We saved humanity from evil!”

“We did?” Xena suddenly snapped out of her state of shock. “We did NOT. I’ve never laid eyes on you before, I certainly never saved you, or anyone else, from being gang raped. And I didn’t save humanity from evil, because let me tell you, evil is alive and well and doing just fine.” Xena’s blue eyes were snapping and her lips twisted into a half smile, half snarl. “Save your romantic fantasies for your little fainting boyfriend over there.”

Gabrielle rolled her eyes. “He is NOT my boyfriend, and I don’t have any romantic fantasies. I’m telling you, Xena, you know me! You have to! You saved me!”

Just then, the boy… Justin, Brian remembered her calling him… woke up with a startled gasp. He seemed terrified, and Brian put his hand on his chest to keep him from jumping up. His heart was pounding. But when his blue eyes met Brian’s, he seemed to calm down immediately, and his lips moved the tiniest bit into what might have been a smile.

Brian smiled at him encouragingly, feeling that peculiar sensation in his groin/chest/stomach again, the one he was fairly sure was caused by paranormal phenomena and not the silky skin of the boy next to him on the sofa. “Justin? Is that your name?”

Gabrielle heaved a big sigh. “Don’t expect any helpful information from him,” she warned. “He talks a lot, but he doesn’t have much to say.”

The boy’s blue eyes narrowed and he shot a look of distaste at Gabrielle. “Yeah, I’m Justin,” he said, lifting his chin a little. “Who are you?” And he looked right into Brian’s eyes.

Brian shook off the feeling of warmth radiating out from his chest. He might have to stop getting triple shot lattes in the morning, they were giving him heartburn. “I’m Brian Kinney, and this is Xena Stavros, my architect, and that’s Cynthia Thornton, my assistant, and I’m guessing this Amazon is someone named Gabrielle, and the rest I think you and Gabrielle are going to have to tell US. How did you get here? What the fuck is that bottle?”

Gabrielle was looking at Brian warily. “How did you know I’m an Amazon?”

Brian looked at her blankly.

Gabrielle stalked over to Brian’s side and glared down at him. “You say you don’t know who we are, how did you know I’m an Amazon?”

Justin sighed.

“Are you all insane?” It was Cynthia. She’d gotten up from the table and was stalking over to Brian on the sofa next to Justin. “Has everyone but me lost their minds? THESE PEOPLE WERE IN THAT BOTTLE. THEY MATERIALIZED IN FRONT OF OUR EYES. IS ANYONE HERE BUT ME CONCERNED ABOUT THAT?”

_Continued..._   



	3. Chapter 3

  
Author's notes:  No blonde bards or naked!fainting!Justins were harmed in the writing of this fiction, but Xena and Brian are going to feel some pain.   


* * *

  
  
****  
Justin and Gabrielle in a Bottle, Part 3  
By Xie

Cynthia was right, Brian thought. Of course, Cynthia was always right, it’s just she was usually right in an understated, cool-blonde, well-dressed, save-your-boss’s-face kind of way, and not a yelling-at-you-like-you-were-six-years-old kind of way. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

“That’s it.” Xena turned on her heel and spoke over her shoulder. “I’m out of here. I don’t know what’s going on, or who these people are, but I’ve had enough. There are other architects in Pittsburgh, Mr. Kinney, call one of them. Call all of them. But this is just too weird for me.”

“Xena! You can’t leave me here!” Gabrielle ran after her, and put her hand on the taller woman’s shoulder. “I… I… I just found you again. We have to talk, I can help you remember who you are….”

The brunette snapped around and grabbed Gabrielle’s shoulders. “You don’t get it, do you? I don’t know you. I am not who you think I am. I’ve never seen you before in my life.” And she strode out the door.

For the first time the blonde seemed to consider defeat, but not for long. She grabbed her stick or pole or whatever it was and flew out the conference room doors after Xena. She caught up with her outside, in a sort of paved courtyard with walls so high around it Gabrielle could hardly understand how they could stand. “Xena, I know you don’t remember me. I understand, something has happened to you, maybe you’re under some kind of spell. But please, I’ve been waiting for you and looking for you for years, so many years I can’t even add them up. Please don’t just leave me here.” Her long lashes trembled with unshed tears.

Xena looked down in exasperation at the face of the woman who was resting her small, strong hands on Xena’s arms. And the minute her eyes met Gabrielle’s, she felt something in her heart or her stomach or her groin, kind of everywhere at once, possibly also in her throat. Gabrielle blinked, and one perfect tear dropped off her eyelashes and fell to her tawny cheek, and rolled down the line of her jaw and then … oh!… it dropped off her face and rolled down her neck to her chest and disappeared into the little green top the blonde was wearing.

Xena swallowed and then looked back up into Gabrielle’s shining eyes. Then she frowned. “OK,” she said. “Just for tonight, until you explain to me how you got into that bottle and why you think you know me. But that’s it. Now come on.” And without looking back she strode off down the street, Gabrielle and her pole and her little brown leather skirt following behind.

Back in the Kinnetik conference room, Justin sat up on the sofa. He’d been in that goddamned bottle with Gabrielle for way too long, and he was really happy to be out in the real world again, even if he was naked and kind of confused. Gabrielle had grilled him mercilessly when he’d first appeared in her bottle, and been irritated and incredulous in turn at his complete inability to remember anything about his past life, and not much about how he got where he was. So things were looking up.

Even if he personally was still naked and confused.

“Ummmm…” he bit his petal-like lower lip, and both Brian and Cynthia turned to look at him. “Could I, ummm, possibly, have something to eat?”

Brian put his hand on the boy’s arm, and smiled reassuringly. This time the smile that answered his was blinding. Without turning away, he said, “Cynthia? Could you see if you can find something to eat for Justin?” The blonde sighed and shook her head, but got up.

“Sure, Brian, but before YOU have a little bite of something, you might want to make sure it’s AGED ENOUGH for you?” And with that she slammed out of the room.

Brian frowned. “How old ARE you, Justin?”

“I’m seventeen. It’s almost the only thing I remember from… before the bottle.”

“What else DO you remember? Do you remember how you got in there?”

The blond shook his head. “The last thing I remember is kind of confused. I remember music, and lights, and sort of… glitter falling on me. And I felt like the music and colors were all melting together and pouring all over me, and that I could dance up in the sky if I wanted to. And then I remember feeling dizzy, and kind of sick, and falling down. And the next thing I remember is waking up in a dark room, in nothing but my underwear, with two other people who I didn’t know.”

“What did they look like? Did they say anything?” Brian wasn’t sure that anything the boy was saying was real, although he didn’t seem to be lying. But none of it made any kind of sense. Then again, he’d been in a bottle with a blonde girl with a pole, so that might not matter.

“The man was kind of weird, he kept staring at me, but never really came near me. The woman was fucking scary, she had all this blonde hair and she paced around a lot, chain smoking. She was wearing this weird shiny black dress and kept yelling at the guy that he’d fucked up somehow.” Justin seemed upset, almost on the edge of tears, but he took a deep shuddering breath and went on. Brian gently touched his soft cheek and smiled encouragingly. He rubbed his thumb over the boy’s full lower lip.

Justin’s lips parted and he stared at Brian for a minute, and then went back to his story.

“The next thing I remember is feeling like I was going to pass out again, and then I was lying on this cold green floor with nothing on, and this blonde standing over me with a big stick pushed against my throat and her foot on my chest. That was Gabrielle,” he added unnecessarily.

Brian bit his lips and asked, “Did you get any idea who those two people were? Their names? What they wanted?”

“The guy said his name was Jim, but the woman called him Chief all the time. He called her Callisto.”

_Continued…_


	4. Chapter 4

  
Author's notes: Absolutely no bottles of any kind were broken or harmed in the writing of this fiction, but hearts? Shattered left and right. OMG! And Justin's cherry!   


* * *

  
****  
Justin and Gabrielle in a Bottle, Part 4  
by Xie

Gabrielle literally couldn’t believe how fast they traveled in the weird vehicle Xena was using to transport them. She felt sick to her stomach and a ringing in her ears, and Xena told her it was something called “motion sickness” and she should just focus her eyes on the horizon ahead. She tried to use some of the meditation techniques she’d learned in India and perfected during the endless years in the bottle. She also had nothing at all in her stomach. But she still threw up all over the pavement when she got out of the vehicle.

Xena dragged her into a building and into some kind of wooden cage. Gabrielle jumped when it started moving, and thought she was going to be sick again. Finally it came to a sudden stop, and Xena threw the gate open and pulled Gabrielle over to a big metal door.

Inside, Gabrielle saw a huge space with a high ceiling, almost like a temple, with one whole wall of windows and a vast polished expanse of floor. Xena didn’t say anything, just kept pulling her along, shoving her into a huge bathing room with a vast but empty tub and big piles of fluffy white towels piled all around it.

“If you’re going to puke,” she said, “use this.” She pointed to porcelain bowl or seat. “Do you want a bath?”

Gabrielle nodded eagerly. She thought she was done throwing up, and she hadn’t had a bath in years. She was starting to think it might be several hundred years. “But first… do you think... that is… could I have something to eat?” Xena rolled her eyes.

Back at Kinnetik, Brian and Cynthia were watching in amazement as Justin ate his way through six containers of non-fat yogurt, four green apples, three cans of soda, and eight Reese’s peanut butter cups. Brian had found some of his spare gym clothes and Justin was wearing a hugely oversized pair of grey sweatpants, rolled up so he didn’t trip on them, and mostly held up by nothing more than the generous curve of his ass. As he finished up the last peanut butter cup, he gave a tiny little burp. Brian immediately suppressed any thought about it being adorable.

“Would you like dessert?” asked Cynthia sarcastically. Justin just shook his head.

Brian suddenly realized that the blond boy had nowhere to stay except here on the sofa at Kinnetik. Realizing the huge space would be cold and empty and frightening to a boy who’d been living in a bottle and appeared to be suffering from amnesia, he made a snap decision. He smiled down at Justin and said gently, “Why don’t you come home with me tonight?”

Cynthia snorted, but Justin lifted his eyes up to Brian and unleashed the most brilliant, dazzling, glorious smile the older man had ever seen. It lit up the whole fucking room. He swore he was going to lay off the espresso drinks from now on, because his heartburn was acting up again all of a sudden. Justin brushed his golden eyelashes over his deep blue eyes, and then lifted them up and made contact with Brian’s eyes. “Th…thank you,” he whispered. Then he blinked. “I’d love that. I don’t know… where else I’d go.” Then another slow blink.

Cynthia cleared her throat after a couple of moments, and Brian snapped out of it. He hustled the boy out of the office and into his Corvette, wrapping his arm around Justin’s shoulders to help keep his jacket from falling off his smaller frame. Then he got in the driver’s side and headed for the loft.

The bottle sat forgotten on the conference room table.

Back at Xena’s loft, the brunette was watching in amazement as Gabrielle gnawed on a piece of cold fried chicken. It was her fourth, and she’d also eaten three hard-boiled eggs, a bag of potato chips, two tomatoes, and half a chocolate cake. And half a gallon of milk. Then she gave a little belch. Xena made a face. “Ready for that bath?”

The water had been running while the blonde ate, and she went in and stopped in amazement. A big mountain of sweetly-scented bubbles rose up on top of the water, the creamy mounds reminding her of Justin’s naked ass when he’d finally blubbered himself to sleep with his face buried in his arms back in the bottle.

“Oh, Xena, this is so beautiful! It reminds me of…” and the blonde caught sight of Xena’s face in one of the many mirrors that hung on the walls of this room, and decided not to get bogged down in the reminiscing. Instead, she stripped off her shoes and skirt and little green top, and happily slipped into the warm, fragrant water.

Xena stood with Gabrielle’s discarded clothing in her arms, transfixed at the sight of the blonde sinking down into the bubble bath. Gabrielle was humming happily to herself, and using a washcloth and bar of lavender soap on her upper arms and neck. She smiled up at Xena while she ran the soap over her left arm and down her underarm and across her breasts. Xena swallowed.

Gabrielle dropped the soap. “Oh!” She started feeling around for it, flustered.

Xena let Gabrielle’s clothes fall to the floor and dropped to her knees next to the tub. “Let me help,” she whispered. She felt around on the bottom of the tub, and her hand touched something slippery and firm. “Is that the soap?”

Gabrielle smiled at her. “No, I don’t think so.” And she licked her pink lips while looking into Xena’s blue eyes. “No, I’m sure it’s not.”

Xena bent her head down and let her lips touch Gabrielle’s, her long, dark hair falling like a curtain on either side of them as they kissed. Gabrielle brought her hands up and held Xena’s face, and the brunette gently stroked the soft, wet skin under her fingers. She traced her left hand up out of the water, across Gabrielle’s arms and wound it around her neck, pulling her even closer and kissing her more deeply. Gabrielle’s tongue was dancing in her mouth.

Then Gabrielle’s hands were pulling at Xena’s blouse, buttons flying everywhere as she tore it off the taller woman’s body. Xena stood up and pulled off her slacks, kicking her shoes across the room, and then stepping into the tub with Gabrielle. She stood there for a minute above the younger woman, her hair hanging down on her muscled body, and then knelt down between Gabrielle’s legs and leaned forward, her hair falling around them both once more.

Xena had no idea what the fuck she was doing. She never had sex with strange women, and Gabrielle was without question the strangest woman she’d ever met. But the sense of familiarity, of homecoming, that she felt when she looked into the younger woman’s eyes was overwhelming. It took her breath away and made her feel like she could do anything, be anything, overcome anything. It made her want to fight and sing and fly. So she buried her face in Gabrielle’s neck and snaked her right hand back down between Gabrielle’s legs and brought her left hand up to caress Gabrielle’s breast.

And gasped when she felt the blonde’s fingers between her legs, stroking her and teasing her, slipping back and forth and then inside, while Xena did the same to her. Their mouths met and Xena felt the skin under her fingers change, soften and get firmer at the same time, and she started to rock on Gabrielle’s hand while Gabrielle began to lift up against hers. Xena closed her hand on Gabrielle’s breast and felt herself start to come all around the hand that was stroking her and pressing into her, just as she felt Gabrielle’s small cry and arching under her. And just at the moment when they both hung suspended on the edge, she felt Gabrielle’s body go completely limp. She froze in surprise, and then almost fell into the water face first, as the blonde’s body suddenly started to waver, and become insubstantial, and then vanish.

Gabrielle was gone.

Brian slid open the door to his loft, and gently ushered Justin inside. The boy stopped and looked around, amazed at the high-ceilinged space with its wall of windows and state of the art appliances and stainless steel counter tops. “Wow,” he said. “This is a really nice place.” He paused and blinked. “I like your kitchen.”

Brian figured Justin would like the kitchen, because it’s where the food was. Or would have been if Brian kept any food in the loft, which he didn’t, because then he might eat it. To distract the boy from any thoughts of hunger, he went over to him and drew him close. He slipped his arms inside his jacket that Justin was still wearing, against his warm, naked skin, and then slid his hands down inside the loose waistband of the sweatpants, cupping Justin’s ass and pulling him tight.

Justin thought he’d faint again right there, but he managed to stay conscious and cling to Brian while the older man nuzzled and bit at his neck and then, slowly, let their lips touch in a kiss. It started out gentle but rapidly became fierce and fiery, Brian’s tongue thrusting into Justin’s mouth.

Brian broke away and looked into Justin’s blue eyes, and said, “Have you ever been with anyone before?”

Justin looked at him for a minute and said, “I have no idea. I don’t really remember anything before the bottle.”

Brian hesitated for a minute. Maybe it would be better for Justin to sleep on the sofa… and then the blond took all the decisions out of Brian’s hands by throwing himself into Brian’s arms and covering his face with desperate kisses.

Brian reeled back but quickly got control of the situation again, pressing Justin against him and pulling him back towards the bedroom. He lay the boy down on the dark blue cover of his bed, and pulled forcefully at the waistband of the grey sweatpants, dragging them down to his knees and then pulling them off and casting them aside.

Justin had his arms around Brian’s neck and their mouths were locked together, and Brian tugged and pulled at his own clothes, wanting to feel his bare skin sliding over Justin’s, needing to feel it. He pulled away from Justin long enough to undo his own pants and take off his shirt, unfastening the buttons with shaking hands. Then he was kissing him again, his lips sliding down the boy’s neck, biting and sucking at the pale skin.

Brian glanced up at Justin’s face. His eyes were closed and he had his head tipped back and was breathing rapidly, his pink tongue caught in his perfect white teeth, his lips wet and parted. Brian felt dizzy just looking at him. He buried his face in Justin’s neck, and then dragged his tongue down the boy’s throat, over his collarbones, and flicked his tongue over one of his tight nipples. Justin thrust up at Brian then, and Brian gently eased him over onto his stomach.

Justin resisted for just a second, feeling a little bit of fear. Was he ready for this? But all Brian did was shower his shoulders and the back of his neck with kisses, his left hand gently resting on Justin’s arm and his right hand stroking Justin’s back.

And then Brian shifted himself up onto his knees and started to kiss the small of Justin’s back, his hands moving down and spreading the boy’s legs apart, his fingers tracing circles on the soft skin of his inner thighs. Justin felt himself pushing up into Brian’s touch, and when he felt Brian pull his cheeks apart, he didn’t resist at all. And when he felt the rough-soft touch of Brian’s tongue on his hole, he forgot what the word “resist” even meant.

Brian pulled Justin up onto his knees and knelt behind him. Justin felt him slipping a finger into him, and while it should have hurt, did hurt a little, it also felt warm and good and sent flashes and sparks of pleasure chasing along his spine. He let himself sink back against it. Brian was reaching out for something next to the bed, and Justin glanced over his shoulder. Brian was opening a condom, and Justin felt a flash of fear, quickly eased when the older man leaned down over him and started kissing him again. Justin turned his head back and buried it in his arms, letting Brian settle against his back. He felt Brian's cock pressing against his hole, and he tried to search his memory to know if he’d ever done this before, but he didn’t think he had, had no sense of what this would feel like, or how to understand it. He just knew he wanted that cock inside of him now.

And just as he got his wish, just as that hot, hard rod pressed into his aching stretched hole, Justin felt a familiar sickening sense of confusion and nausea, and his eyes closed, and Brian, thrusting forward into the boy under him, suddenly dropped onto the bed.

Justin had vanished.

Brian lay there, literally shaking. The sweat on his body had turned icy cold. He sat up and stripped off the condom and pulled on his jeans and a black wifebeater and grabbed his leather jacket, shoved his feet into a pair of Prada shoes and ran out the loft door. He took the stairs three at a time, almost falling, and broke every speeding law in the books on his way to Kinnetik.

He pulled in front of the office and saw another car, the door opening as he got out. It was Xena, and they got to the office door at the same moment.

Their eyes met. Neither spoke.

Brian finished entering the security codes and threw the doors open. They raced to the conference room, and there on the table stood the bottle, upright, stopper firmly in place. Brian and Xena knelt down and peered at the glass. Two dim little shapes were moving inside, but no matter how much the two of them tried, they couldn’t get the stopper back out, and no sound carried through the thick green glass.

_Continued..._


	5. Chapter 5

  
Author's notes: No executive assistants were harmed in the writing of this fiction, but Brian and Xena are showing a little strain and Justin and Gabrielle are not real happy right now either. And ummm, Kinnetik’s kind of all messed up.  


* * *

  
****  
Justin and Gabrielle in a Bottle, Part 5  
by Xie

Gabrielle emerged from a fog of unconsciousness to the sensation of something cold and hard beneath her, and the quiet sound of someone sobbing in her ears. She sat up, knowing from the greenish light all around her that she was back in the bottle that had been her home and her prison for more years than she could count but was at least several hundred, possibly more.

The sobbing was coming from Justin, who was lying curled on his side, pressed up against the glass, knees tucked to his chest, crying into his folded arms. She frowned.

“Justin, what happened?”

The blond lifted up his head and looked at her, tears showering out of his blue eyes, lower lip trembling. “I… I don’t know. Brian and I were…” He blushed. Gabrielle frowned again. “ And then I felt dizzy and sick to my stomach and the next thing I knew I was here. Again.” And the tears overflowed from his eyes once more.

Gabrielle got up and started pacing around the bottle, suddenly realizing she was naked and had bubbles on her shoulders. She brushed them off and went back to pacing. It’s not like there was something she could do about the naked part, and she’d actually never seen Justin clothed so it’s not like he had any right to complain. She did miss her pole, though. Or stick. Or whatever it was.

She couldn’t believe she could just be snatched out from under Xena like that. Or that Xena didn’t seem to remember her. Or that she was back in the bottle with that… that... irritating blond. Sniveling about Brian. She crouched down and snapped at him, “Oh SHUT UP! We have to DO SOMETHING!”

Justin sat up. He’d have loved to do something, but Gabrielle had been snapping that at him for all the days or weeks or months or years or however long it was that he’d been in this bottle and there was never anything they could do.

He was suddenly aware that the blonde was naked, and felt himself blushing and averting his eyes. But not before he realized she had a dragon tattooed all over her back. As he looked at it, it seemed to move or glow a little, but then he blinked and decided it had been the effect of the tears swimming in his blue eyes. Gabrielle turned around again and started pacing in the other direction, and he put his head back down and closed his eyes.

In the Kinnetik office, Xena and Brian were beside themselves. Brian wanted to try breaking the bottle, but even though Xena agreed it made sense, her insides turned to ice when she thought about doing it. Twice he lifted the bottle to strike it on the edge of the table, and both times at the last minute her hand had shot out and grabbed his wrist and stopped him, without her knowing she’d do it.

“What the fuck did you do that for?” Brian growled at her. She shook her head, feeling dizzy and not like herself.

“I don’t know. I just… I know if you do that, something terrible will happen.”

Brian paled. “To them?” he asked.

The tall architect shook her head. “I wish I knew.”

Just then the main lights in the office snapped on, and both Brian and Xena whirled around. Brian’s eyes narrowed and Xena’s hand went, unconsciously, to her waist. Someone came to the conference room door, and pushed it open.

It was Cynthia.

“Brian, I saw your car outside, what the fuck are you doing here at this hour?” Her eyes registered confusion when she noticed Xena standing next to him. Then she saw the bottle. “Where are Justin and Gabrielle? What’s going on?”

“They’re back in the bottle,” Brian said glumly. “I have no idea what happened, Justin was just there one minute, then he seemed like he fainted, and then he vanished right out from under, er, vanished.”

Xena nodded. “That’s exactly what happened with Gabrielle, she was there and the next minute she was just gone.”

Cynthia frowned, and walked over to the bottle and picked it up. She peered at it and saw the two little figures inside. She tried to pull out the stopper but it wouldn’t budge for her any more than it had for Brian and Xena.

“You realize,” she said slowly, “this is the most ridiculous and impossible thing I’ve ever heard of or seen.”

Brian and Xena looked at each other and then back at Cynthia, and shrugged.

“Have you thought about breaking the bottle?” Brian started to tell her they were trying that, when Xena suddenly felt that same icy coldness settle over her entire body, and she found her heart was pounding and she’d broken out in a cold sweat.

“NO!” she cried. Startled, Brian and Cynthia looked at her. She shook her head, confused, but certain. “We can’t break the bottle. Don’t ask me how I know, I just know.”

“Smart girl,” purred a voice from the doorway. “Since if you break the bottle, your little blonde girlfriend will die instantly. Not to mention the little bit of blond boy ass in there with her.”

The three of them turned around and caught sight of a woman with long blonde hair, wearing a black leather miniskirt, thigh-high black boots, and a midriff-baring black leather halter top. She was smiling a happy smile and her black-lined eyes had a strangely psychotic glow to them. Xena felt the most overwhelming sense of foreboding, and every hair on her body stood up. Brian unconsciously stepped nearer to the bottle, trying to put himself between the newcomer and Justin’s little green prison.

“Who are you?” snapped Cynthia. The insane-looking blonde barely glanced at her.

“My name is Callisto, although I don’t expect that to mean anything to you.” She shifted her gaze to Xena, and her smile grew even more psychotic. “Feeling a sense of déjà vu, Xena? A crawling sensation on your skin? Cold feeling in the pit of your stomach? Anything?”

The tall architect felt her fists clench, but she shook her head. “Do I know you?”

The blonde laughed, vastly amused. “Oh yes, my dear, you know me, even if you don’t remember. I’m sure your little blonde girlfriend will remember me very well when she’s out of that bottle. And the next time that happens, I’ll be right there to make up for all the many, many years of time we’ve lost from our special friendship.”

“What about Justin?” Brian hadn’t known he was going to ask, and he cursed himself for the fear he heard in his voice. His heartburn was back, too. He swiveled his hazel orbs around to the blonde in black leather, and her eyes met his narrowed gaze.

She shrugged. “Your little pretty boy is someone else’s special project. If he gets hurt while I’m getting re-acquainted with Gabrielle, well, these things happen. Boys will be toys, you know. And sometimes toys get broken.”

Brian felt the bile rise in his throat at her callousness. Xena seemed paralyzed next to him, and Cynthia was still sitting at the table, looking perplexed. But she didn’t say anything.

Callisto smiled and said, “Well, I’ll be getting what I came for,” and reached out her hand for the bottle.  Brian stepped firmly between her and the table.

“No.” That was all he said. She just smiled and in a flash, her leg kicked out and connected with his ribs, sending him flying backwards into the table. The pain was blinding, and he sank to the ground, his sides heaving. But he still kicked at her legs as she stepped up to take the bottle, trying to knock her down. She just gave a high-pitched laugh and kicked out at him again, this time hitting him in the jaw. Brian slumped to the floor, unconscious.

Callisto was just about to pick up the bottle when Xena felt… something hot and primal and powerful sweep over her. She knew in that instant that if Callisto touched that bottle, Gabrielle would die as surely as if she were shot, hung, fed to hungry wild animals, crucified, or any number of other gruesome deaths that were suddenly playing out in Xena’s mind like some strange and hideous horror movie. Also, although she didn’t know Justin personally, he was an innocent young boy, although she suspected not as innocent as he’d been when he first came out of the bottle. And as she reacted and moved to stop Callisto, she suddenly KNEW. Knew who Callisto was, and what she wanted, knew who Gabrielle was and what she meant to her, and knew who she herself was. Xena. The Warrior Princess. And Callisto’s sworn enemy. Although she still had no idea who Justin was and why he was in that bottle.

“I don’t think so,” she said, and with a yell she launched herself into the air, landing lightly on her feet between Callisto and the bottle. And she grinned, a smile almost as crazy but not even remotely as psychotic as the one on Callisto’s face.

Callisto didn’t really seem surprised, and her smile, if anything, got bigger. “Xena. After all these centuries. What’s new, pussycat?” And she launched herself at the tall brunette, a war cry coming from her lips.

Xena’s feet and arms moved in a blurred whirlwind as she and Callisto struggled. Glass tables and partition walls fell as they kicked and hit and sent each other flying. The desk, the computer, the two conference room doors. Broken glass and shards of wood were everywhere. And the two women faced each other in the center of the chaos.

Xena smiled tauntingly at the blonde. “What’s the matter, Callisto? Heaven didn’t agree with you after all?”

Callisto smirked. “Not really. I guess some of us were just reborn to be bad.” And she launched herself at Xena once again, this time connecting powerfully with her jaw. The architect suddenly felt weak and for a moment wondered who she was and what the hell she was doing, fighting with this lunatic over a bottle, using moves from some bad Hong Kong martial arts movie. And then she slumped to the ground, unconscious, lying in a heap next to Brian.

Callisto turned to take the bottle, and gave a furious cry. It was gone.

And so was Cynthia.

_Continued…._


	6. Chapter 6

  
Author's notes:  No sacred bonds of eternal love were broken in the writing of this fiction, and the bottle’s ok for now too, but poor sweet little Justin’s starting to break and it’s really very sad.   


* * *

  
****  
Justin and Gabrielle in a Bottle, Part 6  
by Xie  
  
Brian came to with a light shining in his eyes. He put up his hand to shield them, and a male voice urged him to hold still and wait for the paramedics. Next to him, Xena groaned.  
  
The Kinnetik conference room was full of police photographing the broken furniture, walls, and windows. Xena was still unconscious, and the police officer who’d spoken to him had a firm hand on his shoulder, preventing him from getting up. Not firm enough, though, when Brian remembered Justin. It would have taken a lot more than one cop to stop him from leaping to his feet to see if the bottle was still there.  
  
When he saw it was gone, he felt a moment of dry-mouthed terror. He heard a sound from below him, and he looked down and saw a wild-eyed Xena pushing aside the officer attempting to hold her back, struggling to get to her feet. “It’s gone,” he told her dully. Their eyes met for a moment. Then hers closed again.  
  
Brian let himself be examined by the EMTs, but refused to be taken to the hospital. Xena let them bandage her wrist and look into her eyes, but finally stood up and stalked away from the hovering paramedics, and made eye contact with Brian. And suddenly it struck him: Where was Cynthia? He was about to ask that out loud, when Xena gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head. He snapped his mouth shut and looked at the door and back at her.   
  
“So, Brian. It looks like we meet again under interesting circumstances.”   
  
Brian closed his eyes for just a second, then looked without expression at the man in the doorway: Police Chief Stockwell. “Jim. I heard you were back.”   
  
The older man smiled, a bitter gleam in his eyes. “Yes, as a police officer I had previously not fully appreciated the fine work done by the dedicated criminal defense lawyers of the world, but now that the charges against me were dismissed for lack of evidence, I have a whole new outlook on the virtues of our modern criminal justice system.”  
  
Brian snorted. “In other words, some sleazy lawyer got you off.” Stockwell’s hiring of high profile lawyer Bunny Happenshatz had been in all the papers and all over the TV news. She’d brought in a flashy LA PR firm to handle the case publicity – brilliantly, if face time on CNN and Fox News were any indication. He’d watched their guest appearance on Larry King Live only two nights before the bottle had appeared on his conference table.  
  
Stockwell just smiled again. “I’ll leave the spin to you. The upshot of it is, after the case was thrown out, the merest threat of a massive civil lawsuit against the City of Pittsburgh and our beloved Mayor is all it took to get me reinstated as police chief.” 

 Stockwell looked blandly at Brian. “Any idea what they were after?” Brian’s face didn’t move, but he knew at that moment that Stockwell knew more than he was letting on. He felt Xena shift next to him; she’d been silent so far, just watching the two men spar. Now she spoke.  
  
“I have no idea, Brian and I were just meeting here to discuss some work I’m doing for him on renovations, when a crazy woman burst in here and started wrecking the place. I think,” added the tall brunette, “she must have been on drugs.”  
  
Stockwell shot a riveting glance at Xena, but she kept her face blank and met his eyes steadily with her blue ones.  
  
Xena went on to explain she was Brian’s architect, and after a while, the police told them both they could go. They hesitated outside, and Brian spoke first. “They’ll follow us.” Xena nodded.  
  
“I’ll go home, you go home, then meet me at the 24-hour diner near PIFA in an hour, do you know where I mean?” Brian agreed, and they both got into their cars and drove home.  
  
Brian was fairly sure no one saw him leaving the loft, and when he got to the restaurant, Xena was sitting in the back. He quickly joined her.  
  
“Cynthia. She must have taken the bottle.” The tall architect spoke with such certainty that Brian felt the first real hope he’d had since he saw the bottle was gone. He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them.  
  
“Why hasn’t she called me?” He hadn’t tried calling her, afraid the cops would find a way to monitor his cell. Xena shook her head.   
  
“I don’t know. But we have to find her.”  
  
They took Xena’s car and parked several blocks from Cynthia’s, but there was no sign of anyone following them. She answered when he rang her bell, and she buzzed them up immediately. When she answered the door, she had the bottle in her hands. Brian almost grabbed it from her, but just went into her condo when she stepped aside to let them in.  
  
They went into the living room, and Cynthia set the bottle on the coffee table. She started to say something, when the bottle began to glow and the stopper slowly worked itself out and mist began to ooze out of the top, slowly at first.  
  
The moment Brian realized what was happening, his heart leapt into his throat. Xena stood beside him, hands clenched at her side. The mist poured out of the bottle and separated into two columns, just like before. And just like before, each amorphous cloud coalesced into the shape of a person, and then hardened into the naked figures of Justin and Gabrielle.  
  
This time, Justin didn’t faint, but he staggered and Brian caught him in his arms. The boy looked pale and disoriented, and Brian simply picked him up and sat down heavily with him on Cynthia’s sofa, feeling him warm and real and alive against him. He pressed his forehead to the boy’s, and held on tight. Justin’s arms twined around Brian’s neck. Neither spoke.  
  
Gabrielle recovered almost instantly from the transformation, and when she saw Xena, she took a step towards her. This time Xena met her, pulling the blonde up into a fierce embrace and kissing her passionately. Gabrielle pulled back and looked at Xena, shocked.   
  
“You remember,” she said, breathless with wonder.  
  
Xena bent down and pressed her forehead to the blonde’s. “I remember,” she said quietly. “I remember everything, Gabrielle.”  
  
“Will someone, anyone,” said Cynthia piteously, “tell me what the fucking hell is going on?”  
  
Brian lifted his head from Justin’s neck, and looked at Cynthia. “I’d tell you if I fucking knew.” He looked at Xena and Gabrielle.  
  
Xena shook her head. “I have no idea, other than the fact that Callisto and I are old enemies, and Gabrielle and I are… old friends.”  
  
The blonde smiled. “A little more than friends,” she almost whispered.  
  
Xena looked down at her and her blue eyes softened. “More than friends,” she agreed.  
  
Cynthia rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I get it, everyone is SO IN LOVE. Can we please figure out what’s happening here? People are coming out of bottles, a crazy blonde woman is trying to kill you, and now STOCKWELL is involved?”  
  
Brian nodded glumly. “Our old friend Jim, back to haunt us.”  
  
Justin flinched. “Jim? And a crazy blonde woman named Callisto?”  
  
Brian shifted the boy on his lap and looked into his deep blue eyes. “Yes, what do you know about Stockwell…?” Then he remembered the disjointed story Justin had told him earlier, about being held captive by a man named Jim, and a crazy blonde woman who had called him “Chief.” He felt sick.  
  
“Justin… what happened to you? How did you get into that bottle?”  
  
The blond boy shivered in Brian’s arms, and the older man held him closer. Justin pushed his face into Brian’s neck and said, “I told you, I can hardly remember anything. I remember I was dancing, and there were lights and colors and glitter, and I felt dizzy and sick. Then I woke up and I was in a room… on a bed, in just my underpants. And this man named Jim was there, and the woman he called Callisto, and they… they… asked me stuff, how old I was and, ummm, if I was…” the boy blushed, but went on when Brian smiled encouragingly at him, “a, a virgin. And I don’t really remember too much else, except that I woke up in the bottle, without anything on, and Gabrielle,” he glared over at the blonde, “was trying to KILL ME.”  
  
The blonde rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t trying to kill you, I was trying to defend myself.” She looked at the frail, naked blond in Brian’s arms. “I hadn’t actually gotten a good look at you yet.”  
  
Brian felt Justin tense up in his arms, but before the boy could defend himself, he interrupted. “But Justin, how did you get in the bottle?” The boy shook his head.  
  
“I have no idea. I just woke up there.”  
  
Gabrielle nodded. “I’ve never remembered how I got in the bottle either. And each time I’m released, or go back, it’s the same. I feel sick to my stomach, I sort of pass out, and I wake up in the bottle or in the world. I’ve gotten more used to it, so it doesn’t hit me as hard as it did Justin. I really don’t even know how long I’ve been in there.” She turned to Xena. “How long has it been?”  
  
Xena reflected for a moment. “Gabrielle, I think it’s been … more than two thousand years.”  
  
The blonde sat down abruptly on the floor and looked up at Xena, stunned. “TWO THOUSAND YEARS?”  
  
“Or more.” Brian, Cynthia, and Justin were all staring open-mouthed. Although once you’ve seen people coming out of a bottle in a cloud of mist, finding out one of them is over 2000 years old shouldn’t be a shock.  
  
“And I have a fairly good idea,” continued the tall brunette, "what’s going on here. And it’s not good.”  
  
“If Callisto’s involved,” said Gabrielle darkly, “that’s pretty much a given.”  
  
Brian felt Justin shiver in his arms again. “She’s nuts,” the blond boy said bluntly. The other four nodded.  
  
“I agree with you,” said Xena. “She’s completely and utterly insane. She had a … rough childhood.” Gabrielle snorted. But Xena went on. “But she’s made her own choices since then, and nearly all of them mean trouble, death, and suffering for anyone in her path. I’ve tried to stop her a hundred times, and she just… keeps… coming… back.”  
  
“What does she want with Justin?” Brian had to know.  
  
“If this bottle’s what I think it is, and Callisto’s doing what I think she is, and Stockwell is doing what I think he is, then what they need is a virgin.”  
  
Justin lifted his head from Brian’s shoulder, and his blue eyes met the older man’s hazel ones. “Justin might not be… exactly… a virgin anymore.”  
  
“Not a virgin? Jesus, Brian, you had him what, an hour?” It was Cynthia.  
  
Justin blushed and buried his face in Brian’s neck again. Brian just shrugged.  
  
 _More to come. Much much more. I’m mad, mad I tell you._


	7. Chapter 7

  
Author's notes:  I wish I could tell you there are things left unharmed by the writing of this fiction, but it’s getting pretty grim. Also kind of porny. What can I say?   


* * *

  
****  
Justin and Gabrielle in a Bottle, Part 7  
by Xie

Brian probably should have felt embarrassed with all the women in the room glaring at him for having admitted Justin wasn’t still in the same pristine state in which he’d emerged from the bottle. But as long as the boy’s naked ass was pressing into his lap and his arms were wrapped around Brian’s neck, he really didn’t give a fuck what anyone thought. He tenderly licked at Justin’s neck and the boy smiled at him and lifted up his face and kissed him.

Then Justin turned to the three women and said, “We didn’t come, though, so nothing really happened.”

Then Brian _was_ embarrassed, so he tried to explain.

“He vanished before we…”

Cynthia cut him off. “We get the idea Brian. Let’s just focus on the important issue here. Xena, why do they want a virgin? What possible reason could they have?”

Xena had dropped down onto Cynthia’s other sofa, and pulled Gabrielle into her arms. Gabrielle didn’t have a stitch of clothing on, and Xena had settled a little throw blanket she’d found on the back of the sofa around her shoulders, and was tucking its ends in carefully. She looked up from her intense study of Gabrielle’s blanket and shook her head to clear it.

“I’m not sure how Gabrielle ended up in the bottle, but if someone other than the original spell-caster wants to control the inhabitant, she or he has to have a virgin. For a, ummm, ritual.”

Gabrielle looked up and nodded. “A sacrifice.” Xena frowned at her.

Justin yelped. “A SACRIFICE? Like, a human sacrifice? Of ME?”

Xena shifted uncomfortably. “Basically, yes.”

Brian shivered, and Justin wrapped his arms around him and kissed him passionately. “Brian, fuck me RIGHT NOW.”

That seemed like a brilliant plant to Brian, who pulled Justin closer and started kissing him back, while the blond’s hands fumbled at Brian’s pants. Cynthia’s outraged “BRIAN!” brought him back to his senses long enough to ask where her guest room was, but she put up her hand in a way he dimly recognized as meaning stop. So he stilled Justin’s hands and looked at her expectantly.

She sighed. “OK, I’m sure that to you, finishing the deflowering of Justin seems like the solution to all our current problems, but it doesn’t explain exactly how Callisto’s going to realize Justin’s not a virgin anymore before she hacks his head off or whatever she has planned. And I just somehow don’t see Stockwell getting involved in sacrificing virgins, so we need to figure out what he wanted with Justin, and what this has to do with Gabrielle, and with US. How did that bottle end up at Kinnetik in the first place? Xena’d never even been there before.”

Xena sat there for a minute, trying to think, which was kind of hard because she had somehow gotten her hand inside Gabrielle’s blanket and was tracing little circles all over the blonde’s bare back, making Gabrielle shiver, which made Xena believe she must be cold, which made her pull her more into her arms, which made Gabrielle shiver more, which resulted in Xena not being able to actually use her higher reasoning skills. Until Cynthia picked up the bottle and threatened to break it over Xena’s head.

The tall architect jumped up and started walking back and forth in front of the sofa.

“I think Callisto wants Gabrielle for the same reason she always has: To get at me. You have to understand that Callisto’s main goal in life, or in this case, lives, is to make me suffer, and she’s always known that the one thing that makes me suffer the most is hurting Gabrielle.”

“Oh Xena!” The blonde jumped up and threw her arms around the pacing brunette, the blanket falling to the ground. For the first time, Brian and Cynthia noticed the dragon tattooed on Gabrielle’s back. They stared at it, mesmerized.

“What is THAT?” Brian finally asked, blinking his eyes to clear them of the impression that the dragon was writhing on her skin.

“Just something to protect Gabrielle when I couldn’t be there to do it.” Xena was looking down at the younger woman – or much, much older woman, really – sorrowfully. Gabrielle looked up at her, tears brimming out of her eyes and running down her face. At the same time, Justin was kissing and licking Brian’s throat, and Brian was feeling sort of dizzy. The lips of the two women met and for a minute Brian almost wished he, too, could be a lesbian and cry while he was kissing someone. Then he realized that was completely insane and got Cynthia’s attention.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but I really need to finish fucking Justin right away or he’s going to die. Where did you say your guest room is?”

“EVERYONE STOP KISSING RIGHT NOW.”

Cynthia grabbed Gabrielle’s hand, pulled her over to Brian and Justin, grabbed Justin’s hand, and then went and sat down on the sofa with them. “Blonds on this couch, brunets over there.” When Brian started to remind her that he needed to fuck Justin IMMEDIATELY in order to save his life, she snapped, “No backtalk. Sit.”

Brian sat. Xena sat. They both looked expectantly at Cynthia, who took a deep breath and yanked Justin back onto the sofa when he started to get up and cross over to Brian.

“Xena, tell us what you know about this sacrifice, the bottle, everything.”

Xena thought for a moment, then said, “First, the sacrifice is just that – a sacrifice. If Callisto cuts the throat of the virgin on a sort of altar and recites certain words while the virgin dies of blood loss, she’ll gain control of any magical or enchanted objects in the area, in this case, undoubtedly the bottle. She gets Gabrielle that way. That part’s clear. I’m not sure why Justin ever ended up in the bottle, though, or what Stockwell’s got to do with this whole thing.”

Brian felt waves of sickness and rage pulsating through him in alternation. Justin was pale and looked sick, and Gabrielle was actually staring at Justin with what looked somewhat like sympathy or even pity. Cynthia, for once, seemed at a loss for words.

“Is there…” Brian cleared his throat. “Is there anything we can do to protect Justin, other than make sure he’s not a virgin anymore and that Callisto knows it?”

Xena looked uncomfortable. “Brian, I think – I’m not sure, but I think that Callisto might have put him in the bottle to preserve his virginity while she prepared some other aspects of this spell.”

Justin got paler, if that were possible, which with his porcelain skin it really wasn’t, except that he blushes a lot and right now he was extremely pale instead of blushing. “I remember.”

Everyone looked at him. He went on, licking his dry lips. “I remember something. She was trying to, to … do something to me, it was hurting me but I couldn’t stop her, and then she read some strange words, and nothing happened and she got really angry. And then she went and got a glass of water and made me drink it with a pill, and then I woke up in the bottle.” He left out the part about Gabrielle trying to kill him this time, probably realizing that if she’d actually wanted to kill him, he’d be dead.

“What do you mean,” Brian suddenly interjected, “That Callisto put him in the bottle to preserve his virginity?”

“I doubt you’ll actually be able to fuck him,” she said bluntly. “It’s probably what made the bottle take them back in the first place.”

On that grim note, Cynthia finally told everyone where the guest rooms were, and got them all settled in for the night. Brian and Justin barely looked at each other when they went into the room they were sharing, and Justin sat down on the bed, dejected. Brian busied himself turning down the bed and taking off his clothes, and then he climbed into bed.

“Come on, Justin, you need to sleep.”

The blond boy sighed and crawled over and got under the covers with Brian. The minute Brian felt his skin against his, he wanted to kiss him, but he didn’t. Justin didn’t have Brian’s self control, however, and he nuzzled into the older man’s neck, and slid his hands all over Brian’s body.

“We can at least do all the stuff we did last time before the bottle took me back,” he whispered in Brian’s ear. “Can’t we?”

Brian might have been able to turn him down if Justin hadn’t immediately closed his hand over Brian’s aching cock, and started biting and nibbling at Brian’s throat. He tipped his head back for a minute, letting the lapping of Justin’s tongue and the grip of his hand send waves of pleasure washing over him. And just as he was about to roll over on top of the boy, he remembered with a jolt why this was such a bad, bad idea and grabbed Justin’s hand and set it back down on the mattress.

“Justin, let’s just get some sleep. I promise, as soon as we know it’s safe, we’ll do this. I just… I can’t stand to see you go back in the bottle.” And he kissed the blond boy’s pouting lips and smoothed his hands through his hair.

At first Justin lay down and snuggled against Brian, and Brian, despite the torment of the smooth warm skin touching him everywhere, and the soft flutter of Justin’s breath on his neck, actually felt himself start to fall asleep. But not for long, because he jolted awake at the feeling of something wet and warm and velvety on his cock. Justin had his face buried in Brian’s crotch and was licking and kissing at him, wrapping his tongue around the head and flicking it in and out of the slit, his hand sliding up and down on the shaft.

Brian reached down to pull Justin’s head away, but found his hands tangled in the boy’s hair instead, his back arching towards Justin’s mouth and tongue and hand. “Justin…” he  moaned.

Justin lifted his head up for a second and grinned at Brian, and then closed his blue eyes and went back to what he was doing, namely, making Brian go completely insane. Brian couldn’t take his eyes off the sight of Justin’s pink mouth sliding up and down on the head of his cock, and then he saw that Justin’s other hand was on his own dick, pumping up and down rapidly. And then Brian sat up and firmly pulled Justin’s head away from his cock, and said, “That’s it, stop, or I’ll make you sleep with Gabrielle and Xena.”

Justin pouted for a minute and then scrambled back up the bed and lay down. He turned his flushed face to Brian, and started to snuggle back into Brian’s arms, but the older man pushed him firmly to the other side of the bed and put one of the pillows between them. “I’m serious, Justin. Go to sleep. We’ll try to figure this out in the morning.” And Justin finally lay down and turned his back to Brian with a huff. Brian lay down and eventually felt his aching hard on subside enough that he started to fall asleep again.

________________________  
Xena and Gabrielle had barely gotten the door to Cynthia’s second guest room closed before the blonde started tearing Xena’s clothes off. Xena would have done the same except, of course, Gabrielle was totally naked already.

Xena pushed Gabrielle back towards the bed, which was piled high with pillows and a fluffy comforter. Xena pushed Gabrielle back onto the bed, and followed her with her mouth and hands, kissing her and running her hands up and down her body.

“It’s been so long,” she moaned into Gabrielle’s mouth.

“Two thousand years,” agreed the blonde. “That’s way too long, Xena. Let’s not let that happen again.”

Xena would have agreed but she had her mouth on Gabrielle’s left breast, and was flicking her tongue over and around her tight little nipple. Then she trailed her tongue downward, her fingers replacing her mouth on Gabrielle’s breast. She licked her starting from the soft underside of her breasts, tracing her tongue over every single curve of Gabrielle’s abdominal muscles, outlining each one. She flicked her tongue in Gabrielle’s navel, and the blonde arched her back and started pushing down on Xena’s head, twining her legs around Xena’s shoulders.

Xena slid her hands down and worked them behind Gabrielle’s thighs, lifting her up a little, and then burying her face in the mound of blond curls. She dragged her tongue through the heat and the wetness, and felt Gabrielle start to writhe under her. She felt the younger woman tense and felt her softness change under her tongue and lips, and then Gabrielle’s hands tightened in her hair and her thighs closed down hard on Xena’s head, and this time, Gabrielle didn’t disappear. She came and called out Xena’s name, and then she pulled Xena up to her and wrapped her in her arms and cried. And Xena held her and murmured over and over, “Never leave me again, Gabrielle. Never leave me again.”

__________________  
Brian woke up with a start. Justin was still asleep, but he’d rolled over the pillow between them and was once again burrowing into Brian’s arms. Brian could feel the butterfly brush of his golden lashes against his neck, and the silky hot touch of his pale skin. He sighed and shook the boy awake. The sleepy blue eyes opened, and Justin flushed.

“Sorry,” he mumbled. “I must have been dreaming.” His blue eyes met Brian’s hazel ones in the dim light of the guest room, and Brian stared at him. They leaned closer and closer and then their lips touched, drawn together like magnets.

Brian groaned and pushed Justin away again, and said firmly, “Go back to sleep over there, or I’ll have to go sleep on the couch.”

Justin paled. “Don’t leave me alone,” he whispered, a look of fear in his eyes.

Brian immediately pulled him close. “I won’t, I promise… it’s OK, Justin, I’ll stay here.” He put his finger under Justin’s chin and looked him in the eye. “But you stay over there, or I’ll have to do something drastic like tie you to your side of the bed.”

Just as Brian said those words, he saw Justin’s eyes change. They went blank and glassy and shallow and the boy’s face froze. His lips parted and he was breathing rapidly, and he broke out in a sweat.

“Justin… Justin…” Brian was holding his upper arms and calling to him, but the boy was past hearing or seeing anything. He was shaking violently and tears were pooling in his eyes, and his hands were grabbing aimlessly at Brian’s arms, almost hitting at him. He suddenly started kicking out with his legs, and trying to push Brian away, and he almost fell off the bed as he thrashed and twisted.

Brian had no idea what to do, but he was afraid Justin would hurt himself, so he pulled him closer into his arms and threw his leg over the boy’s legs. Justin was shaking violently, but he finally calmed down enough to realize Brian wasn’t trying to hurt him. He lay under the older man, gasping, and finally he whispered, “I’m OK. I’m OK now.”

“Justin,” whispered Brian, his hands smoothing back the boy’s blond, sweat-soaked hair. “Justin, what happened?”

He looked at Brian, his eyes full of tears. “I remembered something else.”

_______________  
Xena  was stroking Gabrielle’s hair, and the blonde was lying peacefully against her. Every time her warm breath touched Xena’s skin, she felt a little tingle. Then the tingle started under where Gabrielle’s hand was resting on Xena’s stomach. The blonde started feathering her touch lower, then back up again, and then lower, and then to the insides of Xena’s thighs, and then back to her belly, and then to the sensitive skin of her legs, and then back up, until Xena was going not-so-quietly insane. “Gabrielle,” she said raggedly.

Gabrielle tipped her head up and smiled, and then slid her fingers into the warm wet channel between Xena’s legs, trailing her finger lazily from her opening to the ridge of flesh above it. Xena was lifting her hips up to Gabrielle’s hand, starting to moan, when Gabrielle turned over onto her stomach, half on Xena, and started to lick and suck at her breast.

_______________  
Brian held Justin and looked back at him. He was frightened but he touched his forehead to Justin’s reassuringly, holding him by his upper arms. “Tell me. It’ll be OK, I promise.” He had no idea how he’d keep that promise, but he meant it.

Justin hid his face in Brian’s neck, and said, “It’s not that much more. I just remembered waking up at some point, in that room I told you about. Callisto was there and she had a chain around my neck, it was attached to the bed. And she was laughing. I don’t remember anything more. It just… it frightened me.” And he started to shake again.

Brian just held him, not sure what to do, but after a minute he kissed the boy’s trembling, tear-salted lips. Justin’s mouth opened under his, and the boy’s tongue started writhing against Brian’s, and then the two of them were lying on the bed, bodies pressed together. Justin had his legs around Brian and was kissing him desperately, breaking away only when the need for air forced him to.

Brian’s mind was completely blank at that moment except for one, single thought: Fuck Justin. Get inside him now. He groped at the floor at the side of the bed, feeling for his jeans, and finally found them. He dragged them up on the bed, never breaking his mouth away from Justin’s greedy kisses, and found a condom and lube in the pocket. He slid a lubed finger into Justin’s ass, and the boy moaned and drummed his heels on Brian’s back, begging him breathlessly to fuck him. Brian pressed his sheathed cock against Justin’s hole, a voice in his head reminding him this was a really terrible idea, but not giving him any specific reasons, so he ignored it. He felt himself just start to slide inside Justin, into that willing, tight heat, and then, as the boy’s body went limp and still underneath him, it all came back to him. Why he shouldn’t have done this. Just what made this such a really, really terrible idea.

Justin vanished.

And a few minutes later, while he lay there nearly in shock, the bedroom door flew open and he turned over to find himself impaled by the icy blue gaze of a very pissed off, very naked, Warrior Princess.  



	8. Chapter 8

  
Author's notes: Cynthia was not harmed during the writing of this fiction. Other than that, it’s a fucking disaster zone.  


* * *

  
****  
Justin and Gabrielle in a Bottle, Part 8  
by Xie

Gabrielle woke up and saw the green walls of her two-thousand-year prison and had only one thought. She was going to rip Justin’s heart out through his throat.

The sight of his unconscious, tear-stained face made her pause. She kicked him with her toe. Then she kicked a little harder. And swore the next time she got out of this bottle she was getting her stick and not letting it out of her hand, no, not if Xena put on a harem girl outfit and did an exotic dance for her.

Justin moaned, and Gabrielle poked him with her foot again. He fluttered his deep blue eyes open, and they focused on her. First he looked lost and confused, and then realization dawned, and he moaned again.

“I can’t believe you did this.” Gabrielle was hissing at him.

“I didn’t mean to!”

“What, did Brian TRIP and fall on you and get his penis inside you by accident?”

Justin hung his head, his full lower lip caught between his perfect white teeth. “I’m sorry, Gabrielle,” he whispered, a tear falling off his golden lashes. “I didn’t think.” He looked up at her, defiance swimming with the tears in his eyes. “Haven’t you ever wanted someone so much you forgot the consequences?”

“Well, back when I still got involved with guys, I did notice they had a tendency to meet with terrible accidents leading to death as soon as they slept with me, and after a while I started thinking it might be better not to… oh, shut up! Of course I have. That’s not the point! The point is, we’re back in this stupid bottle and it’s All. Your. Fault.”

Justin looked at her, stricken.

The blonde stamped her foot and added, “And Brian’s.”

“Don’t say anything bad about Brian!”

Gabrielle rolled her eyes, and then sat down, her legs crossed, on the floor. “I guess there’s nothing we can do. There never has been.” And she closed her eyes and began doing her meditation exercises. Justin rolled over and went back to sleep.

Back in Cynthia’s spare bedroom, Brian sat up and met Xena’s angry blue eyes with his unrepentant hazel ones. “I can explain…”

“Explain? I don’t need an explanation. You couldn’t keep your dick in your pants for ten minutes, could you? And now they’re gone, back in that fucking bottle!”

Cynthia appeared in the door, her bathrobe tightly belted and an angry expression on her face. Brian reflected that women got angry way too easily.

“Don’t tell me.”

Brian looked at her steadily. “Okay, I won’t.”

Xena snorted. “They’re gone. One guess why.”

Cynthia turned her eyes on Brian. “Really, Brian, over the years I’ve seen you fuck clients, employees, interns, waiters, cab drivers, cops trying to give you a ticket, married men, furniture movers, the guy who came to fix our cooling system which by the way still doesn’t work right, and Roman Catholic priests. But couldn’t you just this ONCE have managed not to fuck this kid? Just until, oh, I don’t know, TOMORROW MAYBE?”

Brian sighed. He would never admit it, but the angry blonde and the tall architect were both right. Oh, not that he’d finally stuck his dick somewhere it didn’t belong. His dick belonged in Justin's ass. It's just his timing could probably have been a little better.

Cynthia shook her head. “I’m going to make some coffee. Let’s go talk this over in the living room. There has to be some kind of solution that doesn’t involve virgin sacrifice.”

Brian pulled his jeans on and trailed after his assistant and Xena, hoping Cynthia was right.

As they settled on the sofas with mugs in hand and the bottle sitting sadly on the coffee table, Cynthia looked at the windows with puzzlement on her face. “What the…”

She walked over and pulled back the sheer curtains. “Oh FUCK.”

Brian felt his gut clench. “What is it?”

Cynthia looked at him with a grim expression on her face. “It’s Callisto. And she brought the cops.” __


	9. Chapter 9

  
Author's notes:    
The Constitution of the United States of America was threatened during the writing of this fiction, but whether or not it was harmed remains to be seen.   


* * *

  
****  
Justin and Gabrielle in a Bottle, Part 9  
by Xie

“The cops? Callisto is here with the cops?” Brian’s voice cracked as he asked.

Cynthia turned away from the window, her face pale. “What is she doing with the cops? She’s the one who wrecked Kinnetik, she should be under arrest!”

Xena looked grim. “I don’t like the sound of this. We need to hide the bottle. That’s what Callisto’s after.”

Cynthia looked thoughtful. “I have to admit, this condo doesn’t come with any secret hiding places that I know of. Where do you suggest we hide it that they won’t look?”

Brian cut in. “Is there another way out?”

Cynthia shook her head. “Just the fire escape, which lets you down right where they are, or the stairs, that go to the roof, or down to the front door.”

At that moment, a knock sounded on the door. “Police. We have a warrant.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Cynthia picked up the bottle and with a sigh, shoved it at Xena. “Take it into the bedroom, put it behind some books on the bookshelf, and hope for the best.” As the tall brunette hurried to comply, Cynthia marched to the front door and opened it.

Standing in the hallway were Stockwell and two uniformed cops, and Callisto. The psycho kick ass bitch of earlier was gone, and in her place was a well-coiffed, grey-suited, high-heeled political operative, blonde hair swept back in a twist and only the gleam in her eyes to remind everyone that she was completely and utterly insane.

“We have a warrant to search the place, Ms. Thornton. We’re looking for a stolen antiquity believed to be in Mr. Kinney’s possession, and other evidence.” It was one of the cops, who had greasy black curls under his hat, and a little tuft of greasy hair growing out of his chin.

Cynthia looked at the warrant and stepped aside, hoping her scrutiny of the document had given Xena time enough to make some attempt at hiding the bottle. She wasn’t optimistic. Modern architecture so rarely had the appropriate nooks and crannies for hiding things. Something Xena might want to address in her future designs.

Xena emerged from the bedroom and stood in the hall watching the police begin their search under Stockwell’s and Callisto’s amused supervision. Brian was sitting on the sofa, impassive if you didn’t notice the twitching of his lips. Xena went and sat across from him, and in a few minutes, Cynthia joined her. None of the three spoke, but Stockwell and Callisto were carrying on a murmured conversation that they all strained to hear.

Finally the greasy-haired cop went into the room Xena and Gabrielle had been using, and despite himself, Brian tensed. He hoped the officer was as incompetent and inexperienced as he looked. Ugly, too, he thought idly. Who would ever fuck a pale greasy slug like that?

“Chief!” The cop emerged from Xena’s bedroom, elation in his voice. “I found it!”

Brian and Xena both blanched. The young officer approached Stockwell with the bottle in his hands. Brian felt sick seeing the thick fingers clutching the glass he knew held Justin. But Xena felt something more: Xena felt horror as she saw the smile on Callisto’s face. “I’ll take that, Chief,” she said, her voice sibilant and gleeful.

“I don’t think so.” Xena’s voice was dark with menace.

Callisto smiled happily at her. “Watch me.” And she took the bottle in her hands.

Suddenly, Xena threw herself into the air, made a complete somersault, and landed directly in front of Callisto, her hands on the bottle. Callisto kicked out with each foot in turn, sending her high heeled pumps flying, and then threw a kick at Xena’s gut. The brunette evaded contact but kept her hands on the bottle while driving her own foot into Callisto’s legs. The blonde staggered but didn’t fall, and didn’t loosen her grip on the bottle.

“Your little blonde bitch is going to be mine, Xena, and there’s NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT!” Callisto’s hair was falling out of its fashionable twist, and her eyes were wild.

“Is that what you think, Callisto?” And with a wild yell, Xena wrenched the bottle from Callisto’s hands.

Only to have the momentum send it flying through the air.

Brian had been watching the battle over the bottle and struggling with his recurrent heartburn problem. Stress, he thought. It wasn’t the coffee, it was stress. And when he saw the bottle heading for certain destruction on Cynthia’s expensive Italian marble floors, he made a desperate leap of his own, and caught it just before it hit the floor. He had the breath knocked out of him, and the landing was a little rough, but he held it in his hands, intact.

And just then the stopper started to work its way out, and a stream of mist emerged. Brian struggled to his feet and stood watching, his heart pounding.

This time, while Justin didn’t come out of his transition in Gabrielle’s warrior stance, he was at least standing firmly on his two feet. His blue eyes instantly found Brian, and he raced across the distance between them and threw himself in the taller man’s arms.

Brian felt his heartburn ease a little, and he scooped the blond, naked boy up into his arms and felt their lips meet in a long-denied kiss. “Justin,” he whispered, his voice breaking.

“Brian,” Justin replied against the dark-haired, hazel-eyed older man’s lips. “Oh, Brian!”

Gabrielle looked around. “AHA!” she shouted, and went to the corner of Cynthia’s living room and grabbed her pole or lance or whatever it was. “THERE it is! I’m not letting this out of my hands again!” And then she strode the few steps to where Xena stood waiting for her, pride shining out of her blue eyes as she watched the blonde remember to arm herself before anything else. Then they fell into each other’s arms.

Stockwell and the two cops had frozen in shock as Justin and Gabrielle emerged from the bottle. Callisto still had a deadly smile on her face and madness in her eyes. Just as the cops’ shock wore off, she stepped forward and picked up the bottle and its stopper.

Xena caught the movement out of the corner of her eye. She whirled to face Callisto. The blonde smiled. “Nice try, Warrior Princess. But as soon as the bottle calls them back, they’ll be right where I want them. No matter where you take her, no matter what you do, she’ll be inside this bottle again one day soon.”

And she turned and walked out of the room.

Xena tried to follow her, but the drawn guns of the two officers stopped her. Defeated, her eyes turned to Brian. The ad exec was still holding Justin in his arms, and looking in horror at the door where Callisto had just left the condo. The blond boy’s blue eyes were troubled. “If she has the bottle, what’ll happen to us when we go back?”

“Xena!” It was Gabrielle. “Xena, if we go back in that bottle when Callisto’s got it, you know what’s going to happen. We have to do something!”

“I’ll tell you one thing we’re going to do.” It was Stockwell, who had decided to act first, think about that night’s impossible events later. “First, that bottle is evidence in a police investigation, and no one’s going to have it but me. Second, Kinney, you’re under arrest for possession of stolen property and for sexual indecency with a minor. Gold … read him his rights.”

Officer Gold walked over to Brian and Justin, and felt his face blushing and his groin tightening. He had known when he joined the force he’d have to hide his sexuality or risk destroying his career, and putting cuffs on the handsome brunet while the naked blond with a lush, curving ass clung piteously to him was the single greatest challenge to that decision he’d ever experienced. He immediately shifted his eyes to Gabrielle, forcing himself to transfer all his thwarted, twisted, closeted sexual energy to her naked form and her perfectly defined abdominal muscles.

He got Justin out of Brian’s arms long enough to get the tall man’s arms behind his back, and his hands in the cuffs. He kept his eyes firmly on Gabrielle, so much so that Xena’s blue eyes started to ice over as she watched him read Brian his rights.

“Jim?” It was a woman’s voice from the doorway. “Jim, I’ve been waiting forever, what’s going on?” And high-powered celebrity criminal defense lawyer Bunny Happenshatz walked into the room. Her trademark swoop of smooth, dark hair fell over her perfectly made-up eyes, and her crimson lipstick matched her silk blouse. A tight black skirt, slit to mid-thigh, pulled across her taut abdomen, and her long legs were encased in black sheer stockings. She stood there, her black Jimmy Choo pumps catching the light.

“This is bullshit, Stockwell.” It was Brian, angry and defiant as Officer Gold led him from the room. “Justin is 17, he’s legal. You can’t do this!”

“You’re wrong, Kinney!” snarled the Chief. “Everyone knows you can’t have sex with a minor! It’s against the law!”

Bunny looked from Stockwell to Brian and back again. “No, Jim, he’s right. The age of consent in the state of Pennsylvania is 16. If that boy is 17, then this man can’t be charged with anything.”

Stockwell’s face became enraged. “I don’t care what you say, Bunny! I have a warrant for his arrest! Gold, take him in!” And the Chief turned and strode out of the condo, Gold scurrying behind him, pushing Brian roughly ahead. Bunny, her face troubled, hurried after them.

The remaining officer had been staring in fascination at Gabrielle, still standing naked in the circle of Xena’s arms. He suddenly shook his head and turned on his heel and followed the Chief, throwing one last look over his shoulder at the blonde bard. He closed the door behind him.

Cynthia went to the door and slammed the deadbolt locked. Then she turned and leaned against the door, looking at Xena, Gabrielle, and Justin. “Fuck.”

Xena just nodded in agreement. Gabrielle looked from the tall architect to the worried executive assistant, biting her lip.

Justin sank down on the sofa, a thoughtful look on his face.  



	10. Chapter 10

  
Author's notes:  No seventeen-year-old blond virgins were harmed in the writing of this fiction. So far.   


* * *

  
****  
Justin and Gabrielle in a Bottle, Part 10  
by Xie

Between an uncomfortable night in a Pittsburgh city jail holding cell, severe caffeine withdrawal, and worry about Justin, Brian was in a somewhat less than cheerful mood. He’d expected Cynthia to get him an attorney, so he wasn’t surprised when a middle-aged cop came to the cell door and told him his lawyer was there to see him.

He WAS surprised when he walked into the dingy meeting room and saw high-powered celebrity defense lawyer Bunny Happenshatz in conversation with another officer. He sat down at the table and lifted his eyebrow at her.

After the cops left, Bunny walked over and sat down across from him. She crossed her legs as she spread some papers on the table, her slinky brown knit slit skirt falling open to reveal brown leather Jimmy Choo high-heeled boots. If he had to be represented by an attorney entirely without conscience or scruples, Brian thought, at least she dressed well.

Brian continued to look at her, leaning back in his chair as though he’d asked her to step into his office for a chat about her questionable job performance. A look he’d perfected.

Bunny just looked amused. A look she’d perfected.

Brian waited. Bunny spoke first. “Mr. Kinney, while I’m sure you’re surprised to see me here, I want you to understand something.” She paused, but Brian just waited for her to continue.

“When I take a case, it’s not because I think I can win, or because the client has enough money to buy my representation, or even because I think my client is innocent. It’s because there is an important legal principle at stake. My only real client is, I like to believe, the Constitution.”

Brian quirked a half-smile at her. “Yeah, that played beautifully on Larry King.”

She ignored him. “In your case, all four factors are in your favor: I think I can win, I think you’re innocent, there’s been a severe miscarriage of justice, and you’re loaded. Five really: You’ll look great on Larry King. Do we understand each other?”

Brian looked at her appreciatively. “I’d say we’re in perfect harmony. Now get me the fuck out of here and find me a Starbucks before my fucking head explodes.”

Bunny had one of the cops in the hall bring them both coffee, and they reviewed the case against him while Brian felt his pounding headache subside. The coffee in the jailhouse was toxic sludge, but at least it wasn’t decaf.

First Bunny disposed of the charges related to Justin. “As soon as we establish the boy’s age, that will be dropped. At seventeen he’s well over the legal age of consent. I do want to make one simple point. While I fully support your right to have legal, consensual sex with anyone you wish, if you ever decide to come within ten feet of my teenaged son, I’ll shoot you in the heart and find a strong legal justification for my action, never spend a day in jail, and sleep like a baby every night for the rest of my life. Now, let’s move on.”

“Wait.” The mention of the blond teen made Brian feel a little burning in his heart. “Where IS Justin?”

She looked puzzled. “I have no idea, he was at the apartment when I left. I assumed you’d have some way to contact him.” Brian just nodded, not wanting to explain the whole story. Not that she’d believe it if he did.

_________________________________

Xena and Gabrielle brought Justin back to Xena’s loft with them. The architect stopped off at the store on the way home and bought clothes for both blonds. Justin seemed happy enough in a pair of cargo pants and a t-shirt that, on reflection, was maybe one size too small for him, but Gabrielle was confused by her jeans and sweatshirt and opted to put her green top and little brown leather skirt back on. She also wouldn’t stop clutching her stick.

Xena was just so happy to have her there, she didn’t really care what, if anything, she wore. Or clutched. Especially since Gabrielle seemed equally unwilling to stop clutching her.

Justin sat on the sofa looking at the two women across from him with a sad expression on his face, unshed tears in his golden-lashed azure orbs. He couldn’t really believe everything he’d gone through lately, first the strange memories of music and lights and falling glitter and dizziness, and then being chained to the bed, and Callisto drugging him, and then the bottle, and it seemed sometimes like the only time the spinning in his head and the ringing in his ears really stopped was when he was held securely in Brian’s strong arms.

So he sniffled a little, wishing Xena and Gabrielle would stop making out right in front of him. But they didn’t, so he got up and wandered to another part of the loft, wishing it had walls and doors and stuff so he could get away from their giggling and kissing.

He missed Brian. He missed knowing who he was. He missed having memories.

He’d missed dinner.

“Xena?” His voice was soft and she didn’t hear him. He cleared his throat. “Ummm, Xena?”

The tall architect turned her head towards the blond teen. “What’s wrong, Justin?”

“I’m, ummm, hungry.”

Gabrielle’s head popped up. “Dinner. That sounds good.”

While the two blonds prepared a meal on Xena’s stainless steel countertops with her state-of-the-art appliances, none of which Gabrielle had the faintest idea how to use, the phone rang. It was Cynthia, telling Xena that Brian should be out of jail sometime the next day. The brunette hung up the phone. No matter what happened, she wasn’t leaving Brian alone with Justin for ten seconds. With the bottle in Callisto’s hands, even Brian should be able to show some self-restraint, she thought. Mostly because she really didn’t know Brian very well.

When she went back to the kitchen, Justin and Gabrielle were eating cold leftover Thai food out of cartons in the refrigerator. Xena tried to remember how long it had been there, then concluded her cleaning lady would have thrown it out if it was too old. Hopefully.

“So…”

Justin and Gabrielle both looked at her.

“Gabrielle, I was wondering, what’s the longest period you’ve ever been out of the bottle?”

Gabrielle considered Xena’s question. “A month or so was the longest, and sometimes it’s only a few hours. It seems to be pretty random.”

“And you never have any warning at all?”

The blonde bard shook her head. “None.”

Justin had caught his full lower lip in his perfect white teeth, and looked worried. Of course, he always looked worried. But he looked more worried than usual. “I’m still a virgin.” Xena and Gabrielle didn’t say anything. “Callisto wants to KILL ME.”

“If it’s any consolation,” Gabrielle said, “She’s been wanting to kill Xena for, oh, I guess more than two thousand years now and Xena’s still here.”

“Well, to be truthful, Gabrielle, I’ve been dead a number of times since you last saw me.”

Gabrielle looked at her consideringly. “Good point.”

Justin rolled his eyes. “I feel so much better.”

Xena shook her head. “We’re losing focus. Gabrielle, how did you get in the bottle in the first place?”

The blonde looked glum. “You won’t like this.”

“I’m already not real fond of it.”

Gabrielle sighed. “Well, I was walking down the road one day, after you, well, died.”

Xena nodded. She remembered that.

“And even though normally your spirit would come and talk to me, sometimes you weren’t around, and this was one of those times. And then I saw, well, Xena, promise me you won’t go nuts?”

“I have a bad feeling about this.”

Gabrielle nodded. “Alti.”

Xena’s lips tightened.

“Who’s Alti?”

“Don’t ask,” chorused Xena and Gabrielle.

Justin frowned. “Worse than Callisto?”

Xena snorted. But Gabrielle gasped.

“You don’t think….”

Xena riveted her blue eyes on the blonde. “Callisto and Alti? Working together?”

Gabrielle shivered. “OK, maybe we’re imagining things.”

“Maybe you’ve been in a bottle for two thousand years that Alti put you in, that suddenly shows up at the office where I’m going to be for the first time, containing a boy being used by Callisto’s employer to get revenge on Brian but also intended to be a virgin sacrifice to give Callisto control of you in order to get to me, and you don’t think they’re working together?”

“We’re going to die.”

Justin yelped. “I really need to not be a virgin. It’s dangerous.”

Gabrielle nodded. “I noticed that myself.” Justin and Xena looked at her. “When I was one, I mean.”

Xena rubbed the bridge of her nose. She had a terrible headache.

Because there wasn’t anything else they could do, they went to sleep. Justin curled up on Xena’s sofa and Gabrielle went to sleep in Xena’s big platform bed. There weren’t any doors between the bedroom and the living area, so the blonde and the brunette tried to be as quiet as possible. Justin lay there in the moonlight listening to them sighing and later, moaning, and cried quietly, tears falling one by one from his blue eyes and rolling down his porcelain cheek to the pillow. Brian had never seemed so far away.

________________________________

Brian walked out of the city jail with Cynthia at his side. His bail had been paid out of his considerable personal assets, and Bunny assured him the charges would be dropped soon, since they were baseless.

“Coffee. Justin.” Those were the thoughts chasing each other through Brian’s brain. Cynthia took him through a Starbuck’s drive thru, but refused to take him to Xena’s to see Justin until he threatened to fire her. He fired her at least once a week, but this time, he swore, it would be permanent. Finally the executive assistant gave in, and left him at the architect’s loft.

Xena buzzed him in against her better instincts, but she had no intention of leaving Justin alone with him, and the boy’s pale face and teary eyes were getting on her nerves. She turned away from the intercom. “That’s Brian, he’s on his way up.”

Justin jumped up from the sofa and hurtled himself at Brian the minute the ad exec entered the loft. He had his arms around Brian’s neck, and the taller man lifted the teen up and started kissing his throat and jaw while Justin laughed happily.

Xena and Gabrielle marched over and pulled the two men apart.

“Sit. Separate sofas. Talk. No kissing.” Xena didn’t bother with full sentences, she didn’t think either one of them was actually listening.

Gabrielle sat down with Justin and Xena with Brian. “We need a plan,” announced Gabrielle. “If we go back into that bottle while Callisto has it, Justin could die. I could die. Xena could die. And really, the only thing stopping Callisto from smashing that bottle and killing both me and Justin right now, is that she thinks we’ll be back in it sometime soon. So,” she concluded, “we need a plan.”

Brian tore his eyes away from Justin’s face, and nodded. “A plan. Good idea. What’s the plan?”

Justin tried to get up and move towards Brian, and Gabrielle picked up her pole and used it to block his path and shove him back down on the sofa. “We don’t have one yet.” She left the pole lying across her lap and Justin’s, keeping him from getting up again.

The four of them sat quietly for a minute, thinking. Suddenly, Xena smiled. Not a nice smile, but a really nasty, sneering smile. “You know, something just occurred to me.”

The other three sets of eyes locked on her face. And just at that moment, both Gabrielle and Justin slumped towards each other. Brian and Xena both leaped up, choking “No” in horror as the two blonds disappeared.

Callisto had them.  



	11. Chapter 11

  
Author's notes: No antiquities were harmed during Gabrielle's tantrum. The bottle can take it.  


* * *

  
****  
Justin and Gabrielle in a Bottle, Part 11  
by Xie

The minute Gabrielle regained consciousness, she jumped to her feet, grabbed her stick, and started pounding at the sides and bottom of the bottle. With every THWAP! of the staff hitting the glass she gave a huge “OOOF!” Periodically she reared back and delivered a resounding kick with the sole of her foot to the green wall, accompanied by a “GAH!.”

Justin woke up and rolled over onto his back, his eyes watching the blonde’s totally pointless but very athletic demonstration of martial arts.

When Gabrielle was finally done and was sitting in a crouch on the floor, her pole across her knees, breathing hard, Justin cautiously sat up.

“It wasn’t my fault.”

Gabrielle’s eyes swiveled in his direction. She’d forgotten he was there. “I know. Sometimes this just happens.”

Justin pondered that for a while. Lately it seemed to be the only explanation for every event in his life: It just happens. His eyes filled with tears, but he brushed them away with the back of his hand. They had bigger problems now than his missing Brian so much it was like a bottomless ache in his heart, a ceaseless static in his ears, a gnawing emptiness in his stomach.

“Gabrielle?”

The blonde turned her attention from the patch of floor she’d been staring at. “What?”

“I’m hungry.”

She stared at him. “You can’t be. We’re never hungry in here.”

His stomach gave a loud rumble. “Well, I am.”

“Maybe,” she said helpfully, “you’re just going to be sick.”

A few minutes later, Gabrielle realized the feeling in her stomach wasn’t anxiety. She was hungry, too. She looked at Justin, whose stomach had continued announcing its ongoing emptiness.

She shoved her hand through her short hair and tried to understand what was going on.

“Gabrielle?” Justin sounded apologetic.

“What now?”

“I need to ummm, pee.”

Gabrielle stared at him blankly. Now that he mentioned it, so did she.

“What in Tartarus,” the petite Amazon asked, “is going on?”

Meanwhile at Kinnetik, Xena was pacing angrily around the conference room while Brian sat at his desk staring at his computer screen. Cynthia was sitting at the table, tapping her pencil on a blank sheet of paper and now and then looking speculatively at Brian or Xena.

Brian swiveled in his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose. “This isn’t getting us anywhere.”

Cynthia snorted but didn’t look his way.

Xena stopped pacing and looked at him. “I’m a little rusty on my rescuing skills, give me a few minutes. But we’ll get them back.”

“Your skills, or Justin and Gabrielle?”

Xena started rubbing the back of her neck. “We’ll get them back. We have to.”

Cynthia finally spoke up. “Who is this Alti, and DON’T just say I don’t want to know. I want to know.”

Xena sighed. “She’s an evil shaman who I meet in life after life and defeat every time I meet her.”

Cynthia brightened. “That’s reassuring.”

“Yeah, well, you wouldn’t say that if you’d been there when it happened.” Xena was still rubbing her neck, and went and sat down at the table opposite Cynthia. “I’m not feeling very well.”

Brian’s cell phone rang. He looked at the caller ID. “Fuck.” He jabbed at the phone and snapped, “Kinney.”

He looked furious, and Cynthia and Xena watched in fascination as he apparently tried to chew his own lips off. When he hung up the phone, he turned to the women, anger on his face. “That asshole Stockwell just had Babylon closed down for violating public nudity and lewd behavior laws.”

Xena looked confused. “Babylon? Your club? Why would he do that?”

Cynthia cut off Brian’s explanation. “It’s a long story. Just like, I’m sure, the one you didn’t tell us about who this Alti person is.”

Xena grimaced and put her hand back up to her neck, and bent over until she was almost resting her head on the table. Cynthia looked at her. “Xena? Xena, are you all right?”

Brian got up and came over to her, resting his hand on her shoulder. “Xena?”

“I’m not all right,” the architect gasped through clenched lips. “And I think I know why. Get me… get me wherever you think Callisto has Gabrielle.”

Brian and Cynthia stood looking at Xena. “Maybe we should call an ambulance,” the blonde executive assistant said.

Xena took a deep, shaky breath and managed to pull her head up. She twisted her lips into a snarl. “There is nothing an ambulance can do now except slow us down. We have to find where Callisto is keeping that bottle and we have to do it now, or there won’t be enough ambulances in Pittsburgh for all the people who’ll get hurt.” She shuddered in pain, and brought her hand to her throat and clutched at it.

“Including Justin and Gabrielle.”

_To quickly and regrettably be continued...._   



	12. Chapter 12

  
Author's notes:  Yet again, Justin's cherry was unharmed in the writing of this fiction, despite all your fervrent wishes to the contrary. But soon. I promise.   


* * *

  
****  
Justin and Gabrielle in a Bottle, Part 12  
by Xie

Callisto sat staring at the bottle, her long legs in black leather thigh-high boots propped on the desk in front of her. She’d been staring at it for six hours, and still hadn’t been able to get it to open.

She knew she could just wait until it released its inhabitants on its own, but that could be days, weeks, even months from now, and she couldn’t be near the bottle at every moment. And knowing that brat, Gabrielle, the minute she was out she’d risk death by smashing the bottle rather than let Callisto succeed with her simple little plan of revenge.

She hated that blonde bitch almost as much as she hated Xena.

Callisto leaped up and started pacing around the room, pausing from time to time to kick over a chair or smash a framed picture against the wall. The first time she destroyed something the officer on duty at her door stuck his head in, but one snarl from her and he shut the door and minded his own business.

She picked up a chair and was about to throw it through a window when she got control of herself.

Barely.

She leaned her head back and clenched her fists at her side, feeling the anger pounding in her veins and the desire for revenge boiling up in her like a cauldron on a campfire. She wanted to make Xena suffer in helpless agony knowing her precious Gabrielle was out of her reach and in the hands of her worst enemy.

Slowly she got control of herself. And when she did, she tossed her long blonde hair, turned on her heel, and went to the door.

Officer Gold was standing outside, eyeing her warily. She smiled at him sweetly. “Gold, could you step in here for a moment?” She was almost purring.

Gold stammered and flushed, and Callisto fought down an urge to disembowel him. Instead, she made her smile a little friendlier, a little more genuine, and he reluctantly went into her office.

Smiling, Callisto shut the door.

 

_______________________________

 

Inside the bottle, Gabrielle was completely bewildered. In all the years – 2000 of them, in fact – she’d been in this bottle, she’d never once had the slightest sense of hunger or thirst, or any sort of bodily urge before. And right now, she and Justin were both hungry, thirsty, and desperately in need of peeing.

Justin was sitting on the cushions on his side of the bottle, legs crossed in front of him, rocking slightly and chewing on his lower lip, which needed to be gnawed on like Xena needed high heels.

Gabrielle was using the highly sophisticated techniques of mind control taught her by the yogis of India to convince her body to shut up.

Neither strategy was currently working all that well.

Gabrielle finally jumped up, threw her head back, and gave a rousing multi-syllabic shout. Justin’s eyes flew open and he stared at her. “What’s THAT for?”

Gabrielle didn’t look at him. “It’s the Amazon cry. I just thought it might help.” She sank back down to the floor. “Even though it never has before.”

Justin sighed. “There has to be something we can do. What could be causing this? There has to be a reason.”

Gabrielle nodded. “Of course there’s a reason. We just have to figure out what it is.”

“That sounds good. What is it?”

The blonde bard drummed her fingers on her knee. She bit her lip. She stared at Justin, and then she blinked, and looked down at her feet. Then she looked at Justin again, her brow furrowed.

“Alti.”

Justin nodded encouragingly. “Alti.”

She frowned. “Alti is who put me in here. Alti could make you feel pain just by looking at you. What if Alti could make us hungry and thirsty and, you know….”

“Have to piss?”

She nodded. “Exactly. Just by… THINKING it? Or maybe she even taught Callisto how to do it. Maybe this is part of her revenge on Xena.”

Justin looked at her blankly. “She’s going to get revenge on Xena by making us need to PEE?”

Gabrielle jumped up and started stomping around. “Okay, maybe I don’t have the whole thing worked out. But it’s something.”

Justin looked at her. “It is?”

_______________________________

 

Xena slammed her fist down on the Kinnetik conference table. Brian didn’t bat an eye, but Cynthia jumped a little. “I’m telling you, you have to….” The brunette gasped and once again clutched at her throat. “You have to get me to where the bottle is.”

Cynthia frowned and started to argue, but Brian simply got up and held his hand out to Xena. She took a breath, took his hand, and stood up slowly. Cynthia went ahead of them and held the door open. She had a disapproving look on her face.

“Brian, she needs to get to a hospital.”

Brian raised an eyebrow at his assistant. “You try telling her what to do.”

Xena gave a weak laugh. “Good luck.”

They got into Xena’s jeep. Brian drove to police headquarters, and then sat in the parking lot. “I have no idea where Callisto’s office is, or even what her last name is. What the fuck do we do now?”

Cynthia rolled her eyes. “Let me out.”

She talked into the building, her trench coat blowing out behind her, revealing her long legs in a short black dress and black high heeled pumps. Brian helped Xena out of the car and followed his assistant.

She was standing in front of the office directory, hands on her hips. Brian came up next to her, Xena leaning heavily on his arm.

Cynthia stabbed at the directory with a perfectly manicured fingernail. “Sixth floor. Let’s go.”

Riding up in the elevator, Brian gave her a look. “This is Stockwell’s floor.”

Cynthia nodded. “She’s his assistant, what are the odds they’re on different floors? Even if they’re not, they’ll know where she is.” Her eyes swept from Brian to Xena, pale and shaking.

When they got off the elevator, there was a small knot of civilians and police officers clustered near the reception area. They could hear yelling from down the hall. No one paid the least bit of attention to them.

Cynthia cleared her throat, and a woman in a navy pantsuit looked at her with a harried expression on her face. “May I help you?”

“We’re here to see….”

Just as Cynthia started speaking, the yelling from down the hall rose in volume, and everyone, including the receptionist, turned again. It was Stockwell.

“You told me to leave it all to you! You told me you’d fix this. And as far as I can see, you’ve made it worse. My own lawyer is representing Kinney, the kid has disappeared, and now you say you’ve lost the bottle? What’s going on here, Callisto? And where’s Gold?”

Stockwell was standing in the hall, yelling at the top of his lungs at an icy-visaged Callisto. Brian fought conflicting impulses to run down the hall and wrap his hands around the man’s neck and choke him until he told him where Justin was, and to step back so he wouldn’t be seen and distract Stockwell in case he might reveal something that would help them find Justin. And Gabrielle.

Suddenly he felt Xena stand up straight next to him, and let go of his arm. She took a step forward, and all eyes in the office turned towards her suddenly imposing presence.

Including Stockwell’s. And Callisto’s.

The blonde’s cold look turned equal parts predatory and mad. Stockwell charged towards Brian like an enraged bull. Xena just gave him a feral grin that stopped him in his tracks, then turned her attention back to Callisto.

“Where is she?”

Callisto matched Xena’s grin with one of her own. “Your little Gabrielle is unfortunately still safe and sound in her bottle. Although she won’t be for long.”

“Not Gabrielle.”

Callisto laughed. “You don’t want your irritating little girlfriend back? That’s a first for you, Xena. Had a change of heart after all these centuries?”

“Where. Is. Alti.”

Callisto’s face went blank for a second, and then her wild smile was back. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

Brian suddenly realized Cynthia was gone. He really had to start keeping an eye on her, and decide whether to give her a raise or fire her.

 

______________________________

 

Justin was absolutely sure his bladder was going to burst and he was so thirsty he could hardly swallow. And his stomach had been rumbling and growling and yelling at him for hours.

He thought it was kind of soon to be fainting from starvation, but he was seeing stars and feeling light-headed. And then he realized he was being taken out of the bottle. Normally this filled him with happiness because it meant he’d see Brian, but he was terrified of what Callisto had in mind for him, namely, being ritually sacrificed.

His eyes met Gabrielle’s, and she dragged herself over to his side, and put her arm over his shoulder and her fighting staff across both their laps. The last thing he saw before the blackness overtook him was her worried eyes.

Justin actually felt himself materializing this time. It was a very strange sensation, but he was glad that he was learning not to lose awareness while it was happening. If he saw any little opportunity not to have his throat cut he was going to take it.

Gabrielle was right next to him, in her usual fighter’s stance, but both of them were surprised to find themselves alone in the unfamiliar room.

“Where’s Callisto?” Justin couldn’t believe they could just walk away, but he intended to try.

Gabrielle shook her head. She crept over to the door and cautiously opened it. It led out into a short hallway, and she and Justin inched their way down the wall until they got to two doors. The blonde quietly opened the door on the left; it was a dark office. The door on the right led to another hall, this one brightly lit and uncarpeted. They slipped through the door.

“Justin! Gabrielle!” The two blonds whirled around, and saw Cynthia standing in another doorway. “This way!”

Gabrielle instantly followed the blonde executive assistant, her Amazon fighting staff clutched in her hands, Justin right behind her.

They found themselves in a deserted copy room. Cynthia hissed, “Wait here!”

Justin stood nervously next to Gabrielle. “Do you think there’s a bathroom nearby?”

Gabrielle pressed one hand to her forehead and shifted from foot to foot. “Try not to think about it.”

Justin didn’t say anything right away. “Does that work?”

“Not really.”

Cynthia was back almost immediately. They followed her through a maze of corridors, and then waited again when she held up her hand. In the distance they could hear loud voices. Justin and Gabrielle tensed when they heard Callisto, but neither spoke.

A few moments later, Brian and Xena came in the other door of the room. Gabrielle bit back a sob and hurled herself into Xena’s arms, and Brian grabbed Justin in his arms and held him tight, kissing his face over and over.

Cynthia stood by the copy machine rubbing her forehead. “We have to get out of here.”

“Actually, we don’t. We can’t.”

It was Xena. Four pairs of eyes swiveled to look at her.

“What the fuck do you mean?” Brian looked pissed.

The tall architect shook her head. “There’s only one place where Callisto can’t hurt them: The bottle. They’ve got to get sent back.”

“Xena… Xena, something’s changed in there. Justin and I get hungry and thirsty and have other… ummm… BODILY NEEDS.” Gabrielle blushed.

“We have to pee,” Justin explained helpfully.

Brian pinched the bridge of his nose. “She’s right. The bottle is the only place you’re safe. But how….” And then the ad exec realized exactly how they could get Justin and Gabrielle back in the bottle. “Okay, where’s the men’s room?”

Justin perked up. Cynthia sighed. “Two doors down on your left. The women’s room is right next to it, if Gabrielle needs to use it.”

The two couples went down the hall after Xena did a quick reconnaissance. Cynthia stayed in the dark copy room, digging in her leather bag for Advil. Lots and lots of Advil. She had a bitch of a headache.

When Brian and Justin got into the rest room, the first thing Justin did was empty his bladder and the second was drink enough to satisfy his raging thirst. Then he whirled around and attacked Brian with his still-wet mouth, satisfying another kind of bodily need.

Brian let Justin walk him back against the stall door, and then pulled them both inside. He melted against the boy, invading his mouth with his tongue, sliding his hands up inside Justin’s too-tight shirt, feeling his smooth back and sides.

It was the first time he’d ever touched Justin when he had clothes on.

Justin’s hands were frantically fumbling between them, opening Brian’s pants. He slid his hand down and grasped Brian’s cock, and Brian groaned and pushed against the teen’s hand.

“Justin,” he moaned against his shell-like ear.

Justin pulled away from Brian, his lips dark pink and swollen. He slid slowly down the older man’s body, his blue eyes riveted to Brian’s hazel ones. He pushed Brian’s shirt up and kissed and licked his abdomen and buried his face in his pubes, and then yanked Brian’s pants all the way down, freeing his cock.

Justin hesitated, and Brian’s hand touched his hair gently. The blond put his pink tongue out tentatively, and let it touch the very tip of Brian’s cock, tasting a drop of the moisture leaking from the slit.

One taste of that nectar was enough to make him take the whole head ravenously in his mouth, and Brian groaned loudly and let himself forget for a minute that a crazed unstoppable madwoman was waiting nearby to tie Justin to an altar and slit his throat, and just concentrated on the ministrations of the talented virgin on his knees in that cold bathroom stall.

When the feeling of those perfect slips sliding down his cock threatened to send him over the edge, Brian firmly pushed Justin away and tugged him up again. He kissed him, murmuring his name over and over. The boy looked dazed, his lips even more swollen than before.

“Brian.” It was all he could say. “Brian.”

Brian turned him around gently, and opened his cargo pants and tugged them down. “I wish it didn’t have to be this way,” he said. “But Xena’s right. You have to go back to the bottle.”

Brian let his hand close around Justin’s cock, amazed that such a slim boy had such a big dick. He gently moved his hand up and down, using Justin’s pre-come as lube. He buried his face in the boy’s soft blond hair while he expertly rolled a condom onto his own cock with one hand. After just a few strokes of his hand he felt Justin arch back against him and turn his face around for a kiss, and just as their lips met and Justin’s come shot against the wall in front of him, Brian pressed the head of his cock into Justin’s tight ass.

For one glorious moment he felt the ring of muscle open for him, and a sense of heat and pleasure shoot through his body. But in the very next instant, he felt Justin sag between him and the wall, and even while he ravaged the boy’s hot mouth with a kiss and his hot ass with his cock, Justin vanished.

Brian leaned his forehead against the cold tile and tried to breathe.

_Of course to be continued._   



	13. Chapter 13

  
Author's notes:  Many things, including the very fabric of space and time, were harmed in the writing of this fiction, and try as I might, I can't find it in my heart to regret it. Oh, and I should mention that Justin's cherry was obliterated beyond all possibility of rehabilitation.   


* * *

  
****  
Justin and Gabrielle in a Bottle, Part 13  
by Xie

Officer Ethan Gold contemplated the wall in front of him. It was all he could contemplate, because he was unable to move his head.

Or his hands, feet, or any other part of his body. He was strapped into a narrow, high-backed chair, bound with steel-studded leather straps at the ankles, calves, wrists, forearms, waist, neck, and forehead. Which was probably a certain amount of overkill given his size and lack of muscle mass, but had seemed to amuse Callisto when she'd strapped him in.

He’d felt a sense of trepidation when Chief Stockwell’s assistant had beckoned him into the room, which he’d promptly squelched just as he always squelched any inclination based on instinct, intuition, or emotion. He was a cop. His grandfather had been a cop. His father had been a cop. He was carrying on a fine family tradition and he wasn’t going to do anything to ruin that.

At first he’d been astonished at Callisto’s request. “You want me to WHAT?”

The blonde had narrowed her eyes for a second, but then was all smiles so quickly he thought he must have imagined it. “Officer Gold, I know you saw Justin and Gabrielle materialize the other day.”

Ethan had been trying not to think about that, but he nodded.

“Guard the bottle. If they appear, detain them. Don’t let the bottle out of your sight.”

“Yes, ma’am.”  
___________________________________

Brian, Xena, and Cynthia, the bottle containing Gabrielle and Justin tucked safely into her leather bag, debated where to go. Kinnetik was out, Cynthia’s condo was out, Brian and Xena’s lofts were out. The police would find them too easily at any of those places.

The ad exec pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. “I know where we can go.” He got out his cell phone, and punched in a number.

“Deb? Could a couple of friends and I come over for a little while? We have a slight problem.”

He flinched and held the phone away from his ear, and finally the cacophony died down and he hesitantly put it back. “Great, thanks, we’ll be right there.”

Cynthia looked at him quizzically. “What was that about?”

Brian shrugged. “I don’t know, I never listen to Deb.”

They took Cynthia’s car, and Brian directed her where to park so it couldn’t be seen from the street.

“You have a naturally devious criminal mind, Brian.” It was Xena.

“Thanks.” Brian looked pleased.

They went up to the door, and a redheaded woman wearing too much makeup answered the door. “Brian, what the fuck are you doing here? Why aren’t you at work? Who are these people? What the fuck is going on?”

Brian sighed and put his arm around her shoulder and steered her into the house. “I need a safe haven for a little while, Deb.” He hesitated. “The cops are after me.”

Deb didn’t answer right away, just looked at Brian’s face, and then shifted her gaze to Xena and Cynthia, then back to Brian. “Huh?”

Xena wondered if it was the first time Deb had been rendered speechless. Maybe she was a descendent of Gabrielle’s family.

“It’s a long story and most of it you wouldn’t believe. Can we stay here for a while?” He looked lost.

Deb’s face softened instantly. “Of course, honey, come on in. Let me make some coffee.”

She bustled off to the kitchen, and Cynthia lifted her brow at Brian.

“Do you practice that pathetic look in the mirror?”

He smirked at her. “I’ve been practicing it on Deb since I was in junior high.”

They sat down and Cynthia took the bottle out of her purse and set it on the table. The three of them stared at it, wondering what was happening inside its impenetrable green depths.

______________________________________

Ethan had given up struggling against his bonds hours ago. Callisto had watched him for a while, laughing, but finally left him alone. He cursed himself for letting that fucking intern, whatever his name was, talk him into a quick blowjob in the bathroom while he was supposed to be guarding the bottle. Jaxon. Jasper.

Joxer, that was it. He said it was a family name. Must have been a pretty weird family.

He'd have never been so tempted if he hadn't kept staring at the bottle, remembering the pale skin and curving ass of the blond boy he'd last seen clinging to the muscled arms of Brian Kinney, just before Kinney was led away in handcuffs.

Suddenly the metal sliding door on the dank basement room opened. Callisto stuck her head in, and smiled.

“How are you feeling, my pet? A little worried? All worn out?” She strode over to the wall, and lifted down a heavy carved casket from a metal shelf. She looked over her shoulder at Ethan.

“Well, much as I’d like to keep you here and amuse myself for a while, I have things to do, and no time to play. Such a shame, really.” She eyed him speculatively. “Feel free to yell or scream and make all the noise you want. No one can hear you. At least, no one who cares.” She smiled.

Ethan just stared at her, the strap across his forehead cutting into his skin. He felt his flesh start to crawl when he saw her eyes.

She went to the door and called out, and a greasy-haired, pallid boy slunk in. He looked like he could have been anywhere between 14 and 20, and his eyes were dead in his face. Callisto smiled sweetly at him, and opened the casket and handed him a little vial of some kind. He snatched it from her palm and stuffed it in the pocket of his stained hoodie.

“Hunter, my sweet, would you help me take our guest down to the tunnels?”

The boy she called Hunter shrugged. “Sure, Callisto, but what’s in it for me?”

So quickly Ethan didn’t even see her hand move, the blonde had a long knife at Hunter’s throat. “I’ll let you live?”

Hunter swallowed. “Sounds fair.”

Callisto unstrapped Ethan from the chair, and held her knife casually at his throat while he stood up. “I don’t care if you try to run,” she said. “There’s really nowhere for you to go.”

Ethan blinked and stumbled as he followed Hunter out of the room, Callisto behind him humming an odd tune. They passed through a crumbled opening in a brick wall, and started to descend into an old tunnel system, lying forgotten under the streets of Pittsburgh.

Suddenly they passed through a series of turns and archways, and came out into a large cavernous space lit with torches. A group of figures, dressed much like Hunter in baggy jeans and hoodies, were huddled around a large fire. They turned their eyes towards the newcomers, and Ethan felt that chill on his skin again.

Hunter stood to one side of him, and Ethan felt Callisto shove him hard towards the group by the fire. “Here you are, my sweet little ones.” She smiled, showing perfect white teeth in the dim light. “Dinner.”

Ethan felt a scream rising in his throat as the boys advanced on him, but Callisto was right. There was no one to hear it.

___________________________________

Back at Deb’s, Brian stared glumly at the bottle on the coffee table. Xena was pacing back and forth from the kitchen to the living room, and Debbie had quietly switched everyone to decaf two hours before.

“This is BULLSHIT,” the tall architect snarled. “We have to do something.”

Just then, Deb’s doorbell rang. Brian’s hazel eyes and Xena’s blue ones swiveled towards it, but Cynthia just looked resigned. She took the bottle and put it behind Debbie’s television set, even though she figured it was pointless.

The door opened and Callisto strolled in. “Hello, Xena, my dear. Miss me?”

“Not really.” The brunette narrowed her eyes, and stood between Callisto and the rest.

“I might have forgotten to mention that I can always find the bottle, no matter where it is.” Her eyes scanned the room. “I can’t always find just what nook you’ve tucked it into without a little bit of a search, but I thought I could take care of that easily enough by getting you to tell me where it is.”

Xena snorted. “And I’d do that because….?”

Callisto smiled. “I know how you hate to see innocents get hurt. It’s your one great weakness, Xena. Hunter!”

Hunter shuffled into Debbie’s front room, holding a small child by the hand. Brian gave a choked gasp, and Debbie yelped. “Gus!”

“The bottle for your son, Brian. It’s really that simple.” Callisto looked supremely confident.

Xena didn’t turn her head. “Your SON?”

Brian bit his lip hard. “It’s complicated.”

“Great. Any other innocent bystanders I should know about?”

“Not that I can think of off the top of my head.” Brian didn’t take his eyes off the little boy standing in the doorway.

Gus smiled sweetly. “Hi, Daddy.”

Brian swallowed hard. “Hey, sonny boy.”

“Give me the bottle, Brian.” It was Xena, her voice implacable.

Brian hesitated only a second, and went and pulled it from behind the television and handed it to her.

Callisto jerked her head at Hunter, and he took Gus over to stand next to Debbie, who reached down and pulled the little boy against her, glaring at Hunter. “I know you, you little shit, I’ve served you in the diner, you and your freaky friends. Don’t expect me to wait on any of you again.”

Hunter barely even looked in her direction. “Like I’d miss eating in that greasy dive.”

“Can we review restaurants later?” Xena snapped. “Here’s the bottle, Callisto, now get out.” Xena tossed it towards the blonde and Hunter moved away from Gus and to the door, Callisto backing away after him. And then she was gone, as if she’d never been there.

“Holy fuck.” It was Deb.

Brian was on his knees, holding Gus close to him. “You okay, sonny boy?”

The child nodded, his eyes enormous. “I’m okay, Daddy, but that lady tied up my mommies.”

Brian’s hands clenched on the boy’s shoulders, but just for an instant. “That’s okay, son, we’ll go over right now and untie them.” Oh, Melanie was going to shit over this. He glanced imploringly at Deb. “Debbie, can you go over there, and take Gus home?”

“Are you fucking nuts? You need to call the cops, Brian.” Debbie looked outraged.

“She IS the cops.” It was Xena, her voice implacable. “That was Stockwell’s assistant.”

Debbie stared. “Holy fuck.”

“Exactly.” Xena’s eyes were hard.

_____________________________

Gabrielle was asleep. Justin sat staring at the green wall of the bottle, trying to will his raging thirst and aching bladder out of his consciousness. Not to mention his hunger, although that was harder with his stomach grumbling and roiling and all but shouting at him.  
The blond teen was sitting on the pillows piled up against the bottle wall, his feet flat on the floor, his knees tucked under his chin, his arms wrapped around them. He felt like crying, but he’d cried himself out days ago.

He wanted this all to be over, although not over, as in throat slit, dead, over.

He didn’t really remember his past life, but he knew it must have been better than this. He buried his face in his crossed arms and concentrated on not crying, not wetting his pants, and not thinking about food, water, or Brian.

Gabrielle opened her eyes and listened to Justin sniffling while he tried not to cry. She wasn’t much for crying anymore herself, but tears of frustration stung her eyes. To have found Xena again, after two thousand years, and to have their time together so brief, so erratic, so out of their control.

All that, and the bottle, once at least a refuge from hunger, thirst, and other bodily needs, was a real prison now. She needed to eat, to drink, to pee. She had no idea how long it would be before she was free again, or who would have possession of the bottle when she was. And just as that disquieting thought passed through her mind, she felt the disorienting tingle that meant the bottle was releasing her, mixed this time with something… else. Some sense of wrongness and compulsion that she couldn’t quite recognize, but that wasn’t entirely unfamiliar either.

Justin lifted his head and his blue eyes glistened with unshed tears in the weird light glowing through the bottle walls. She saw his face start to slacken, and she hurtled herself over to him, her staff in her hand.

“This isn’t right,” she gasped to him. “Something’s wrong.”

They materialized only semi-conscious, even Gabrielle lying in a heap on the floor, Justin next to her. She felt dizzy and sick, and a moment later, she got to her knees and threw up. When she was done retching, she lifted her head and saw Callisto’s mocking face.

“Hello, pumpkin.” The blonde was holding Gabrielle’s staff, idly playing with the leather wrappings.

Gabrielle spat a mouthful of bile on Callisto’s feet.

The blonde just laughed, high pitched and wild. “Oh really, Gabrielle, I’ve walked knee-deep in blood and gore and decomposing flesh, and you think a little puke is going to bother me?”

“I don’t think anything bothers you, Callisto.” Gabrielle staggered to her feet, and reached down and helped Justin get up. He was flushed and sweating, and his eyes wouldn’t quite focus.

“That’s where you’re wrong, precious pet. It bothers me that Xena is out there, walking around without a care in the world. It bothers me that in all these centuries I’ve never managed to make her pay for what she did to me. And one other thing bothers me, Gabrielle, and always has: You.”

Gabrielle snorted. “I’m still the same irritating blonde I’ve always been, Callisto, and proud of it.”

“Well see how proud you are,” Callisto sneered, “When I use you as a bait in a trap for Xena.” And then Callisto gestured behind her, and a crowd of goons swarmed around Gabrielle and Justin, pulling them to opposite corners of the room.

Justin struggled, but futilely, and he found himself stripped naked and bound hand and foot almost before his head stopped spinning from the sudden movement.

Gabrielle was harder to subdue, and kicked, punched, and threw her attackers off her with ease. She finally stood there glaring at Callisto, her breast heaving.

Callisto sighed. “You Amazons are always so tediously FEISTY.” And she picked up a thin, reed-like straw and blew in it. Gabrielle jerked to the side, but felt the sting in her neck, and then felt her eyes close as she slid to the floor.

Justin watched from the side of the room, trying to get his hands free so he could help Gabrielle. He swore when he got out of this, if he did, he was going to take martial arts classes and learn to defend himself. Or join a street gang or something. This naked-and-threatened-with-virgin-sacrifice thing was getting old.

Callisto squatted down and picked Gabrielle up easily, her biceps straining. She tossed her carelessly on a pile of blankets against the wall, and strode over to a large metal door and slid it open.

In the light from a high, rectangular window, Justin saw a large, flat rock, with arcane images scrawled on it, and a circle of guttering candles set around it on the floor. Four huge metal rings were embedded in the rock, one at each corner.

A long, flat, sharp looking knife lay on the floor next to what he was uncomfortably sure was a sacrificial altar.

________________________________

Debbie left with Gus, and Brian, Xena, and Cynthia sat around her kitchen table. Xena had become icy cold and withdrawn after Callisto had disappeared, and seemed almost not to be listening.

Which she wasn’t.

After a few minutes, she dug her cell phone out of her pocket and took it outside. When she came back in, she seemed resolute.

“Okay.” She spoke decisively, interrupting whatever Brian and Cynthia had been saying. “I’ve been thinking, or more accurately, remembering, and I know what we have to do.” She turned to the blonde executive assistant. “Could you find Callisto’s office again?”

Cynthia nodded. “Blindfolded.”

A slight smile quirked across Xena’s lips, and vanished. “Good. If you get me there, I think I can find where she has Gabrie.. the bottle.”

Brian started to object, then fell silent.

The three of them went out to Cynthia’s car, and she drove to the neighborhood around police headquarters. She parked a few blocks away, and they took an indirect route to the building. They stood in the back parking lot, realizing there was no way they could go in the front, and no easy way to go in without being seen.

But Xena suddenly smiled, and the back door opened and a hand gestured them inside. They sprinted over and stepped into a dimly lit service hallway.

Xena clapped the dark-haired, slightly built man on the shoulder. “Thanks, Joxer. I owe you.”

“You know I’d do anything for you, Xena. And Gabrielle.” He twitched his nose and tilted his head to the side. “Although I think I’ve given my last blowjob on your behalf, I still can’t get that taste out of my mouth. And I don’t know, it’s like there’s a greasy residue or something.” He stuck his tongue all the way out of his mouth and tried to look down at it. “What do you think?”

Xena smiled. “I won’t forget what you've done for us, Joxer, but we have to find Gabrielle.”

The four of them inched down the hallway, and Cynthia stopped and looked up at the ceiling. “I’d say we’re right under her office now.”

Joxer nodded knowingly. “Sounds about right.”

Xena sighed. He’d have said that whether he knew or not. Fortunately she had faith in Cynthia. She stood with her eyes closed for a moment, focusing all her senses on the energy flooding the building. She could almost hear the voices of the dozens of men and women going about their business above them, almost know their thoughts.

And then she caught what she was looking for: The scent of blood, the touch of suffering.

She opened her eyes. “That way.”

Brian and Cynthia didn’t question her, and Joxer nodded. “There are some old tunnels down here.” He smiled proudly. “I’ve explored them all.”

“Good, you can show us where to go.” Xena rolled her eyes as soon as he turned away, but they all followed him through a narrow doorway. They followed a twisting maze of old, wet-smelling corridors, lit only by the little flashlight from Cynthia’s key chain. After what felt like forever, Xena stretched out her arm and everyone came to a halt.

In the distance, they could dimly hear voices. Brian jerked when he heard Justin’s voice, obviously in distress, and Xena and Cynthia both gripped his arms fiercely.

Silence fell again, and Xena cautiously motioned them forward.

After a few more turns, Cynthia turned off the flashlight. They didn’t need it anymore, because there was light filtering in from somewhere. And then a minute later, they stepped into a large high-windowed room, the late afternoon light slanting in through the dusty air.

Xena didn’t pause, just strode across the empty chamber and yanked open the metal door at its other end. Brian, Joxer, and Cynthia hurried after her.

Callisto was kneeling inside a circle of candles, glowing with an unearthly light. Her hair was standing out around her head, full of static electricity. Her eyes glowed madly, and she was chanting words from a book with yellowed pages.

Xena cursed in a language neither Brian nor Cynthia knew, and gripped Brian’s arm hard when he tried to rush forward to where Justin lay, naked and bound, spread-eagled across a flat rock, like an altar. The boy’s head had fallen slightly to the side, and blood was pumping slowly, a pulsing spurt at a time, out of a tiny nick in his jugular vein.

Tiny, but the pool of blood alongside him was deep and spreading, and he was pale, frighteningly pale, and his eyes were closed.

“Callisto.” Xena’s voice sounded loud in the high-ceilinged room. The blonde ignored her, and Xena looked around the room. She saw Gabrielle lying on a pile of blankets next to the wall, and she raced over to the fallen bard.

“Gabrielle! Gabrielle!” Xena fell to her knees and started slapping the girl’s cheeks softly, saying her name over and over.

Gabrielle whimpered and opened her eyes. “Xena!”

Xena smiled. “You’re all right, it’s all right, Gabrielle. But we have to save Justin.”

Gabrielle sat up suddenly, and then grabbed her head as the room spun. Xena looked around and saw Gabrielle’s staff leaning against a nearby wall, and took it in her hand. Standing, she threw it across the edge of the circle around Callisto.

It exploded.

Brian was still standing where Xena left him, his face locked in anguish. When the staff exploded, he shuddered, and his eyes got very dark. Xena went to his side, gripped him by the shoulders, and shook him.

“Brian. Snap out of it. We have to do something, and I need your help.”

“Xena.” It was Cynthia. “What in hell is she DOING?”

“She’s trying to transfer the bottle spell to me. She wants to imprison me. And she’s trying to combine it with a spell of compulsion, to put me under her power, if she can.”

Gabrielle had dragged herself to her feet, and came over to them. “We can’t let that happen. And we can’t let Justin die.”

“I have no intention of letting her succeed, or letting Justin die.” Xena’s face was grim. “Joxer? Did you get what I asked you to get?”

The short brown-haired man nodded, and pulled a flat package out of his jacket. Xena pulled the paper off and revealed a round metal object, with a hollow center, sort of like a cross between a Frisbee and a donut, if they were made of metal and honed sharp as a sword on the outer edge.

“To put the spell on me, she has to get me inside that circle. So at some point in this process, she’s going to have to let it down long enough to either expand it to include me, or bring me in. That will be our only chance.”

The brunette continued. “I’ll concentrate on Callisto. Gabrielle, you have to help Brian get Justin away. I’ll try to break his bonds with my chakram, but I don’t know if I’ll succeed. Cynthia, get that bottle, and if it’s still inside the circle, BREAK IT. But if you break it outside the circle, both Gabrielle and Justin will probably die. So if that’s the case, just take it and GET OUT OF HERE. We’ll try to get to the car, wait for us there.”

Cynthia, eyes wide, nodded.

Brian nodded, too, his eyes still fixed in agony on Justin, his pale form stretched out on the altar, his blood still pulsing out onto the rock, taking his life with it. Brian almost felt like it was taking his life, too, but he pushed that thought away.

Joxer spoke up. “What do you want me to do, Xena?”

Xena glanced at him. “You need to help Gabrielle.”

Joxer nodded, and Gabrielle looked sideways at Xena. “Gee, thanks.” She said it so quietly Joxer couldn’t hear.

Xena smiled slightly. “It was nothing.”

At that moment, the circle began to flicker and pulse, and then move outward. Callisto’s voice was still chanting, and she was turning a page of the book. She still hadn’t glanced their way. She was nothing if not focused.

Xena pushed the others behind her but held onto Gabrielle’s and Brian’s hands, while they held onto Cynthia and Joxer. She strode forward to the edge of the circle, pulling them close behind her. The circle pulsed outward, seemed to sense her, and began to draw itself up, almost like a breaking wave. Then the wave parted, and it raced around Xena, trying to bring her inside it.

At that moment she lunged forward, pulling the others with her.

Xena’s chakram screamed as it hit each of the four rings binding Justin, shattering them. Brian fell to his knees next to the boy, gathering him into his arms. The pale blond’s eyes fluttered open, and he seemed to be trying to focus them.

“Brian.” He whispered it, just a breath, and then his eyes closed again.

Brian stood up, Justin in his arms, and strode out through the jagged edge of the circle. Cynthia had the bottle in her hand, and was about to shatter it on the altar, when Callisto screamed and grabbed it from her, just as Xena’s chakram flew out of her hand again and struck Callisto’s arm.

The bottle fell to the ground, but it landed on Callisto’s foot before rolling against the altar, and didn’t break. Cynthia grabbed it and was about to smash it when an enraged Callisto grabbed her by the hair and tried to wrestle it away. Blood was pouring from the wound on her arm, and as it splashed on the ground, the circle started hissing and sputtering and racing over to the blood. The book was glowing.

Xena struck at Callisto again, and Cynthia wrenched away, and threw herself and the bottle through a gap in the circle. She started to run, but was stopped at the door when Chief Stockwell, with a dozen cops, guns drawn, blocked her way.

Everyone froze.

"What's going on here?" His square jaw was rigid, his lips tight with disapproval.

Callisto looked at him, blood still gushing off her arm, and laughed madly. "You stupid, stupid man."

Stockwell strode over to her, and slapped her across the face. "You're hysterical. What's going on?"

Callisto went rigid when Stockwell slapped her, and her wild eyes became more focused. Her smile grew even more insane, and she ran her hand over the blood on her arm and, so fast he couldn't even react, smeared it across his face.

Xena's body jerked when he did that, and she shot a look at Cynthia. The blonde executive assistant seemed to read Xena's mind, and edged closer to her, and quietly passed Xena the bottle.

The circle was still trying to re-form, but part of it was still hissing and bubbling around Callisto and her dripping blood, while the rest seemed fascinated with the pool Justin had left behind. Xena flicked her wrist out so that the bottle was in close proximity to the splattered blood on the ground between Callisto and the Chief, and then called out a single word.

Callisto screamed "NO!", but it was too late. The circle snapped back in place, and a sheet of fire swept up from the blood at her feet, to the blood on her arm, and then leapt across the short space between Callisto and Stockwell to turn the blood on his face to fire, too.

And then the two of them vanished, leaving the bottle rocking gently on the ground between them.

_________________________________

Brian and Gabrielle ran into the cops on their way out of the building, and one of them hurried with them to take Justin outside, radioing ahead for an ambulance. Until it arrived, Brian knelt on the cold cement, clutching Justin in his arms, willing life and breath and warmth into the boy’s cold body. His lips were blue, but he was still breathing.

Gabrielle knelt helplessly on the other side, one of Justin's hands clutched in hers.

When the ambulance came, they tried to prevent Brian from riding with them, but one look into his eyes made the words die in the EMT's throat.

Gabrielle watched helplessly as the ambulance left, and turned to go back to Xena. The cop who’d escorted them outside blocked her way.

By the time everyone came pouring out, it was dark. Xena grabbed Gabrielle into a passionate hug, and whispered against her ear, “Everything’s fine, I’ll tell you later, where’s Justin?”

The three of them drove to the hospital in Cynthia’s car, but when they got there, no one could tell them anything. Xena found Brian sitting in the hallway outside the ICU, and dropped into the chair next to him. He was splattered with blood, and had blood on his lips. His eyes were strange.

“We can’t find anything out. Did they tell you anything?” Her voice was gentle.

Gabrielle slid into the chair on his other side, and Cynthia stood a little ways away, shocked to her soul to see the pain on Brian’s face. She decided she might not quit, after all. Despite everything.

Brian made an effort to focus on Xena’s question. “Yes, they said he’d lost a lot of blood.” He gave a bitter laugh. “Obviously. They’re doing surgery to repair the nicked jugular and giving him transfusions. They aren’t sure he’ll make it.”

Xena gazed at Brian, compassion in her eyes. Gabrielle was patting his hair, but he didn’t even notice. He just sat with his gaze fixed blankly on the wall.

Cynthia wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw a tear roll down his face.

______________________________________

Justin woke up slowly. He had no idea where he was. There were bright lights and machines and everything was white.

Eventually he tried turning his head to the side, and when he made his eyes focus, he saw the one thing he wanted most to see: Brian’s face.

The taller man was sleeping, his head on the pillow above Justin’s head. He was sitting in a chair next to the bed, and he had one of Justin’s hands in his.

“Brian?” At least, that’s what Justin meant to say, but almost no sound came out. But Brian’s eyes flew open anyway, and Justin couldn’t believe the joy he saw in them.

“Justin.”

Justin cleared his throat. “What… what happened?”

“What do you remember?” Brian asked carefully.

“Callisto… and… were you there?”

Brian nodded. “We got you out of there. Just in time, it seems.” And then he swallowed hard. “It was three days before we knew if you’d make it.”

Justin thought about that for a minute, and realized Brian’s grip on his hand had tightened until it hurt.

Just then, he heard a sound from the other side of the bed. He turned his head slowly, and saw Gabrielle’s laughing eyes, with Xena standing behind her, smiling. “Look who’s up!”

Justin smiled weakly at the two women. “Hey.”

Xena put her hand on his head, and looked long and hard into his face. “You scared us.”

“I scared YOU?”

Xena nodded. “You scared us all. But they say you’ll be all right.”

Brian squeezed his hand. “They said you could go home 24 hours after you regained consciousness.”

Justin felt a stinging in his eyes. “I…. I don’t know where home is.”

Brian and Xena glanced at each other over Justin’s head.

“What?” demanded the blond teen.

“Your parents threw you out because you’re gay, Justin. And you’re almost 18, so you can be declared an emancipated minor, and not have to go into the juvenile system.” It was Gabrielle, her voice warm with sympathy.

“You mean, like, foster care?” Now the stinging in his eyes threatened to become real tears.

“Xena, Gabrielle, could Justin and I have a minute here?”

The two women went out into the hall, and Brian’s warm hazel eyes smiled down into the depths of Justin’s twin pools of blue. “I want you to stay with me at the loft.”

Justin was silent for a minute. “Stay with you?”

Brian cleared his throat. “Live with me.”

“Until I’m better?”

“Until… until you don’t want to live there anymore.”

Justin stared at Brian.

The next day, Justin stood next to Brian as he unlocked the loft door. He felt nervous, and remembered their first night at the loft. A terrible thought struck him.

“Brian!”

The taller man glanced at the teen. “What is it, Justin?” He slid the door open and went inside.

Justin paused on the threshold. “Brian, you don’t think it’s like before, if we… if we fuck, I’ll go back in the bottle?” His eyes were afraid.

Brian looked at him steadily. “Xena says no, the bottle spell transferred from you and Gabrielle to Stockwell and Callisto. You’re free of the bottle.”

“You’re sure?”

Brian pulled the boy inside the loft, and slid the door shut behind him. “I’m sure, but why don’t you let me prove it to you?”

______________________________  
   
Xena and Gabrielle walked into the loft, and set their grocery bags down on the counter.

“I love modern supermarkets,” Gabrielle said blissfully.

“I’m astonished to hear it.” Xena started putting the groceries away.

Gabrielle stood there dreamily, with a grapefruit in each hand. “Foods from all over the world, foods out of season, and these wonderful cold boxes so the food never spoils.”

“It still spoils.” Xena tossed a disgusting Thai takeout container in the trash.

“The point is, Xena, there are a lot of wonderful things about this new modern world, and I’m going to enjoy every single day I have living in it.”

Xena’s eyes smiled at the blonde. “Me too. Because you’re in it.”

Gabrielle let the grapefruits drop to the counter, and threw her arms around Xena’s neck. “Oh, Xena, I love you!”

The tall brunette dropped her head down on the blonde’s soft hair. “I love you too, Gabrielle.”

Gabrielle tipped her head back. “Do you know what I want?”

“Dinner?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Well, yes, but after dinner?”

“What do you want, Gabrielle?” It crossed Xena’s mind that at that moment, there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t try to get, to make Gabrielle happy.

“A bath.” And Gabrielle kissed her.

_______________________________________

Brian carried Justin into the bedroom, and lowered him onto the bed. Justin’s mind kept returning to their first night, their first time, before he knew what would happen to him if Brian tried to fuck him.

Brian seemed to know now nervous Justin was, and rested his forehead against Justin’s for a second. “Don’t worry. Don’t even think.”

Justin sat up and pulled his t-shirt off over his head. “I’m not worried. I’m not thinking.” He let his blue eyes meet Brian’s hazel ones.

Brian smiled at him, and unbuttoned his shirt and took it off. He stood next to the bed and took off his jeans and shoes, and then pulled Justin’s cargo pants down and tossed them aside.

Justin was leaking on his grey underpants, and Brian pressed his hand down hard on his cock before pulling them off. Justin wriggled his toes, and leaned back on his arms, smiling at Brian as the older man straddled his legs and reached over to the bedside table for lube.

“This is going to feel cold,” he warned.

Justin let Brian’s finger touch his asshole, and he tipped his head back while Brian slipped one, then two fingers inside him. Brian touched that spot inside him that he’d touched once before, and he moaned and pressed against his finger. Brian put his other hand on Justin’s hip, and held him still while he gently pulled his fingers out.

Brian rolled a condom onto his dick and then lifted Justin’s legs onto his shoulders. He settled between Justin’s thighs and leaned forward and kissed the boy. “Just relax.”

Justin nodded, and he never took his eyes off Brian’s while the man slowly, carefully slid his cock into his ass. Justin tensed, more than half expecting to be snatched back to the bottle, but as Brian’s cock slid further into him, and he felt himself opening and adjusting to the size and heat of him, he forgot his fear, forgot everything except Brian’s cock stroking him inside, filling him, stretching him.

Brian couldn’t believe the tightness and the heat of Justin’s ass, and he let himself get a little lost in it. Then he felt his orgasm start to build, and he slowed down, focused on Justin, holding it off. He let his weight shift back a little and took his right hand and started stroking Justin’s cock, letting the precome leaking out the slit lubricate his motions, feeling Justin’s ass tighten on his cock.

Justin’s hands were gripping Brian’s shoulders and he was curling his body up and trying to suck Brian’s tongue down into his throat. Brian pumped faster and deeper, and just as he felt himself lose control and start to come deep in the boy, Justin groaned and shot all over Brian’s chest, filling the tight space between them with his come.

When they were both spent, Brian let himself fall heavily on the boy, and Justin let his legs drop down off Brian’s shoulders. Brian shifted his weight off to the side, but stayed covering Justin with his body.

Justin’s lips touched Brian’s hair softly, and the older man smiled into his eyes. “I told you the spell was broken.”

Justin’s eyes drifted closed and his only answer was to curl himself more closely against Brian while they both fell asleep.

__________________________________

Gabrielle sat on the edge of the tub, lifting handfuls of bubbles and letting them fall off her hand onto Xena’s breasts. She lifted shining eyes to the brunette, whose long dark hair spilled over the edge of the tub and spread out on the tiles in glorious profusion.

Xena smiled serenely at Gabrielle, and lifted her hands out of the water and slid them down the blonde’s arms to lock around her wrists. “Come in.”

Gabrielle sighed and let Xena slide her off the tub edge into the hot frothy water, and curled her body around the taller woman’s. Xena’s hands were playing against her skin, teasing her and touching her, stroking the insides of her thighs and then dipping into her wet core, tracing the heat from inside Gabrielle all over her pubes.

Their lips were touching gently, and Gabrielle let Xena’s tongue fill her mouth, let it sweep over her tongue and lips and teeth gently, until a sudden heat struck them both and they were passionately moaning and kissing, Gabrielle twisting in Xena’s arms while Xena’s fingers pressed relentlessly into her.

Gabrielle moved her own fingers down to between Xena’s legs, plunging them inside her, while her mouth fastened on Xena’s nipple. The taller woman arched under Gabrielle’s tongue and teeth, and just when Gabrielle felt herself slip over the edge and start to clench on Xena’s fingers inside her, she felt an echoing clench inside Xena, pressing her fingers together.

They lay in each other’s arms, wet and gasping, until they had the strength to get out of the water and dry each other with soft white towels.  
____________________________________

After a few hours, Brian and Justin woke up, and made love again, Justin on his side while Brian gently entered him from behind. Brian came with his face pressed against Justin’s hair, Justin’s come spilling over his hand.

“I love you, Brian.” Justin whispered it against Brian’s skin.

Brian sighed. “I’ve always said, I don’t believe in love, I believe in fucking.”

Justin tensed in his arms. “Wh…what?”

Brian buried his face in Justin’s soft blond hair. “Of course, I also didn’t believe in curses, spells, magical bottles, reincarnation, and virgin sacrifice. So what the fuck do I know?”

Justin smiled.  
_________________________________

After their bath, Xena made sure Gabrielle had her dinner after all, feeding her all the things the blonde liked best while they sat on big pillows on the floor. After they ate, they stood gazing out the floor-to-ceiling window of Xena’s loft overlooking the river.

Gabrielle leaned back against Xena, who had her arms wrapped around the blonde and her chin resting on her head. Gabrielle sighed happily.

“I can’t believe we’re together again after all these centuries. I always knew I’d find you.”

Xena smiled and pressed a kiss into Gabrielle’s hair, but didn’t say anything.

“Xena? Do you think Callisto will ever get out of the bottle?”

The tall architect shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ll have to deal with it if she does, but I hope not.”

Gabrielle was quiet for a minute, then went on. “Do you suppose we’ll find Alti?”

It was Xena’s turn to sigh, and not happily. “I’m sure we will. It’s my destiny to fight her in each lifetime. I haven’t fought her yet.”

“It’s your destiny to DEFEAT her in each lifetime,” Gabrielle corrected.

Xena turned Gabrielle around in her arms and smiled down at her. “Well, I guess first I have to find her. Until then….” Xena leaned down and kissed her, pulling her close.

Gabrielle smiled.

_____________________________________

Stockwell looked up from the floor of the bottle into Callisto’s eyes. He felt his heart turn over. He started to wish he’d died.

Callisto smiled.

______________________________________

And somewhere in a remote corner of Pittsburgh, looking out at the sun setting over the city skyline, Alti smiled.


End file.
